


A Place Called Home

by sleepwithease



Series: We'll Always Be Good Company [1]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kid Fic, M/M, My First Fanfic, but also really sweet, characters belong to my girl maggie, doctor!Adam, they're cute dads, this is super sad at times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-01-26 00:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 45,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12544584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepwithease/pseuds/sleepwithease
Summary: When Adam gets assigned to the pediatric ward of the Singer Falls hospital during his residency, he doesn't expect his feelings to get in the way, but when he meets a neglected baby boy, he falls in love. Luckily, Ronan does too. Things will get complicated and their forged family will be threatened, but they'll love each other through it.





	1. And Then There Were Three

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is my first EVER fic, so please be kind and leave me your thoughts in the comment section! I hope to update every few days. Things are gonna get real messy, but stick with me and we'll get through this together.  
> Love,  
> Mads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam falls in love with someone else and Ronan misunderstands.

The pediatric wing of the Singer Falls hospital was Adam Parrish’s least favorite place to be.

That isn’t to say that Adam didn’t like kids. Adam thought they were tolerable when they weren’t screaming in his hearing ear or pulling mercilessly at his stethoscope. He liked them from a distance. It’s just that when he was killing himself in school to become a doctor, he imagined performing life-saving operations or helping the sick rehabilitate themselves until they were fully well again; in these fantasies, his patients were all at least in their teens. Adam couldn’t say he ever fantasized about standing by the nurse’s station surrounded by wailing children while all of the other residents were learning how to be real doctors with patients who didn’t soil themselves nearly as often. 

But that’s where he was now, and he wasn’t particularly happy about it.

That couldn’t all be blamed on his station assignment, though. He had woken up at a ridiculous hour, and from the moment he opened his eyes, he could tell it was going to be a miserable day. The skies had opened up sometime in the night and the torrential downpour had been rattling the old rickety windows of their farm house when he was pulled from sleep fifteen minutes before he had to actually be awake. He had nearly wept over the loss of sleep. Fifteen minutes of sleep may not be much, but to Adam, it was the difference between a decent day and the day from hell. His would lean toward the latter. 

The bed was cold beside him, and he could distantly hear the sound of cabinets opening in the kitchen over the thunderous rain. The smell of coffee was enough to lure Adam from the warms of his bed and into the shower, where he lazily scrubbed his skin, half asleep. 

Ronan was at the kitchen table when Adam came down the stairs in his pale blue scrubs. Wordlessly, he handed his exhausted husband a steaming cup of coffee in a dream cup that never let its contents cool. Ronan offered Adam a small, pitying smile as he took his seat at the table silently, plucking an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter. Chainsaw sat on his shoulder, pecking at Ronan’s curls. Adam would never understand how Ronan could be wide awake at all times, even now, at five in the fucking morning. Goddamn farmers, with their morning energy. Goddamn Ronan, with his insomnia. 

Adam left the house fifteen minutes later, with a travel mug of coffee, an “I love you” from Ronan and a whispered wish for a good day that was sealed with a kiss. The wish would not be granted.

As soon as he got to the hospital, he was sent to the peds wing to work with Dr. Myers, a bossy woman who ran around in purple scrubs and was only nice to people who were under the age of thirteen. He had managed to lose her somehow, most likely by the grace of God, and had taken up a post at the nurse’s station where he was talking to Rhonda, his favorite nurse. Rhonda was a hefty, middle-aged woman who loved gossip, Twizzlers, and Adam’s dreamy husband. 

“All I’m saying is, if my husband looked like yours or even acted like him, I’d have locked him away ages ago,” Rhonda laughed, raspy and full. Adam grinned, rolling his blue eyes at Rhonda’s antics. She had met Ronan one day when he had brought Adam his forgotten lunch. She had taken one look at the man, with his tattoos and his dark curls and his muscles, and promptly fell in love. Adam was half convinced if Ronan were the slightest bit straight, she would have kidnapped him on the spot. 

“You think he’s hot now, but you should have seen him in high school, before he started farming. He was a total beanpole and not to mention bald,” Adam chuckled. Rhonda looked perturbed at the thought.

“I don’t believe that for a second, Adam Parrish,” She said disapprovingly. Rhonda’s brown eyes fixated themselves on something over Adam’s shoulder and narrowed in a wince, “Dr. Myers is on the warpath, and she is headed straight for-”

“Were you planning on joining me today, Parrish?” Dr. Myers huffed as she breezed by him. Rhonda hummed “ding dong the witch is dead” under her breath as Adam followed behind Dr. Myers.

“First order of business for today is meeting with the mother of our newest addition to the NICU. She’s being held in custody in room 308,” said Dr. Myers. 

“Custody?” Adam asked as they turned the corner to the birthing hallway.

“She came in last night, strung out on God knows what. The baby has been a mess since they cut the cord. We’re going to do our best to make his withdrawal as comfortable as it can be, but to do that we need to know what she was on,” Dr. Myers said, shoving her clipboard at Adam. “Look alive, Parrish. We’ve got kids to save.”

Adam could feel the bile rising in his throat as he turned the corner into room 308. The strung out mother was scratching at the dark track marks on her arms, her eyes bloodshot and devoid of emotion. It was clear she didn’t care about her child’s life. She was just looking to get her next fix. Thoughts of Adam’s own parents came to him just then, and he tried his hardest to push those thoughts away so they wouldn’t interfere with his work. Still, he recognized those red, angry eyes. They had stared down at him for seventeen years of his life while he was dealt blow after blow. He forced the bile that was rising in his throat back down as Dr. Myers addressed the patient with blunt disdain.

“Here is what’s going to happen, Miss Moore, is it? We’re going to ask you some questions about what you’ve been on for the last nine months and you aren’t going to pretend you have no clue what we’re talking about. Maybe then we can save your son’s life. How does that sound?” 

Adam had never liked Dr. Myers more in his life. 

“Are you allowed to speak to me that way?” The woman slurred her words drowsily, but they still contained a bite. Dr. Myers wasn’t fazed. She simply blinked at the junkie woman and waited.

“Heroin, mostly. Also meth, just once, right after I found out I was pregnant,” Miss Moore mumbled. Then, as if it just occurred to her, she said, “Look, is he really going to die? I don’t wanna see him if he’s sickly.” 

“Babies born addicted to drugs can suffer life-threatening effects during withdrawal. Maybe you should have thought of that before you stuck a needle in your arm,” Adam growled. All eyes in the room swiveled towards him. He could feel the blush creeping up his neck and straight to his ears. He couldn’t believe he just snapped at a patient. He had let his own past get the best of him, and judging from the look Dr. Myers had in her eyes, it was going to cost him.

He excused himself quickly before he could get reprimanded in front of the patient for losing his cool. He stood with his back to the cool wall, letting the feeling ground him. He focused on sounds around him as the anger blurring his vision subsided. He hoped Dr. Myers wouldn’t send him home. Sure, he could use a nap and a hug from Ronan right about now, but it would only hurt the career he had fought so hard for. 

Dr. Myers came through the door moments later, her demeanor surprisingly calm as she turned her blank stare on Adam.

“What the hell was that?” Dr. Myers asked.

“Nothing, ma’am. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped,” Adam said, aiming his stare at his shoes. When Dr. Myers didn’t respond, he went on, “I don’t think I should work on this assignment. It hits close to home.”

Finally, Adam raised his eyes to meet his supervisor and was surprised to find her eyes had softened slightly. She uncrossed her arms and cocked her head to the side.

“Come with me, Parrish. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

*

The NICU was almost empty when Dr. Myers brought Adam in. Two nurses sat in rocking chairs, holding babies close to them while rocking back and forth. Dr. Myers nodded at the women before heading straight towards the incubator in the back of the room. 

“Parrish, I’d like you to meet Brady,” Dr. Myers said, waving her hand at the quivering baby. His skin was nearly blue and he quaked uncontrollably in the incubator, wailing in pain. Adam felt sick. He had seen videos in medical school of strung-out babies, but seeing it in real life left him reeling. He almost startled when Dr. Myers spoke again, “you’re going to keep him company today.”

“You want me to-”

“Hold the baby, Parrish. Babies born with addiction need to be comforted. Studies show skin-to-skin contact helps with their recovery,” said Dr. Myers, “and…he needs someone to depend on. He doesn’t have anyone else.”

The stare Dr. Myers fixed Adam with unnerved him. It seemed to say, I know what happened to you and I know you can relate. He spared her another glance before reaching into the incubator and picking up the shaking child, pulling him close to his chest. He moved slowly across the room and sat in one of the rocking chairs, not lifting his eyes from Brady. After a few moments of rocking, the baby’s wails quieted to a low whine, but he didn’t open his clamped-shut eyes as he crowded closer to Adam.

“I’ll leave you two to it, then,” said Dr. Myers as she left to resume her day. 

*

“Adam?” Ronan’s voice bellowed from upstairs as Adam closed the front door behind him. He could smell the remnants of dinner, which had probably cooled an hour ago. He was late, very late, but he couldn’t bring himself to be sorry, even as Ronan came down the stairs with a frustrated glare.

“Where were you?” Ronan huffed, crossing his arms against his broad chest, “you were supposed to be home two hours ago.”

“I know, I got…caught up.” Adam sighed, leaning against the stairwell. Ronan’s furrowed eyebrows smoothed a bit as his expression changed from angered to worried. He ran a hand down Adam’s arm, a calming gesture he had picked up when they were eighteen and Adam was a nervous wreck almost constantly. 

“Bad day?” Ronan asked.

“Not really, just…” and what was Adam supposed to tell him? That he had spent the day holding a trembling baby and he couldn’t stop thinking about the way his heart pounded as Brady wrapped his small hand around Adam’s finger? How he had stopped whimpering when Adam started to talk to him? How as the day went on, Brady got better and Adam fell a little bit in love with the kid? “It was just long,” is what Adam settled on. 

“You hungry?” Ronan asked, pulling Adam to his chest. Adam shook his head, resting his face in the crook of Ronan’s warm neck. “You should sleep, love.”

Adam sighed into Ronan’s collarbones and nodded his assent. After the emotionally draining day he’d had, all he wanted was to curl up beside Ronan and sleep like the dead for a few good hours before he could get back to Brady. 

Ronan took Adam by the hand and led him up the stairs where they started their nightly routines in comfortable silence. Soon, they were both curled into each other in their warm bed, exchanging soft, sleepy kisses. Adam looked up from where his head was resting on Ronan’s chest and was met with fond lynch-blue eyes. Ronan’s mouth was quirked at the corner in a lazy rendition of his charming smirk. Adam thought back to the first time that smirk had made his heart stutter, which had startled Adam, and then shamed him when he came to the conclusion that Ronan would never feel anything for him. That was ten years ago, and he still couldn’t believe how much Ronan continuously proved 17-year-old Adam wrong. He wondered if little Brady would ever find that kind of love, and what could have happened to him if Ronan hadn’t come along and showed him what is was to be loved and cared for. As Ronan pressed a kiss to his forehead, Adam thought, not for the first time that day, that he was so goddamn thankful for Ronan Niall Lynch. 

“I love you, Ro,” Adam breathed as his eyes drifted shut. Before he fell into unconsciousness, he felt a light kiss being pressed into the corner of his mouth.

“I love you too, Adam.”

*

The next month was easily the most confusing time of Adam’s life, and that’s saying something, because there was a time in his life when he was literally half-forest, homeless and experiencing his bi-awakening in the same moment.

He had been at Brady’s side every day since Dr. Myers had given him the assignment. If he was ever assigned a different station, he would practically beg to be put on the peds rotation. It wasn’t hard to get the assignment. All the other residents wanted to be in ER or orthopedic, where all the gruesome action was. Dr. Myers never refused him, but Adam was beginning to think she was catching on to his unprofessional attachment to Brady. If she did, however, she never said anything. Each morning when he arrived at the hospital, he would go straight to the NICU, and Dr. Myers let him stay there until the end of the day.

He knew he was most likely hurting his career, but he couldn’t peel himself away from Brady. The baby was slowly but surely adjusting to the intense withdrawals and while he was still suffering, having someone cradle him was doing wonders for his recover. His skin had pinked up a bit, no longer the dull blue hue it once was. It was becoming easier to get food in his system, but he still wasn’t quite able to keep it down. Brady’s skin was always ice cold when Adam first picked him up in the morning, and the infant had started to curl into Adam’s arms as soon as he laid hands on him. It might sound crazy, but Adam suspected Brady could recognize him even though the baby had yet to open his eyes. It was becoming harder and harder for Adam to ignore the way his heart swelled when Brady sighed into his neck or curled his little hand around his fingers, clutching to Adam like he was his lifeline.

Things were confusing at home, too. Ronan was acting weird as of late, stalking around the barns with a constant look of irritation on his face. Adam had tried to ask him what was wrong and was promptly snapped at, so Adam avoided the subject. Now, with Adam coming home later and later due to his habit of stretching his time with Brady, the couple had hardly been talking at night. It seemed like the only contact they had anymore was at night when they collapsed into bed next to each other, tentatively holding each other as if they had forgotten how. 

Adam had yet to talk to Ronan about his attachment to Brady, half because, well, they weren’t really talking at the moment and half because he didn’t want to scare his husband with the jarring information that Adam Parrish, a man of logic and clear-thinking, was becoming all googly eyed whenever he thought of kids as of late. They had never talked about kids before, which would be strange for anyone else who had been together as long as they had, but Adam and Ronan were not particularly good communicators. Plus, they had sort of jumped into marriage in a way that would only work for the two of them. One summer morning, when Adam was freshly twenty-two and enjoying a blissful three-month stay at the barns, Ronan had woken up with a ring curled in his hand and pressed the cool metal into Adam’s palm. They had called Gansey, Blue and Henry, who zipped home from their adventures abroad to witness the event, as well at Matthew, Declan and all the ladies of Fox Way. It wasn’t a big ordeal or anything, just a small ceremony in one of the nicer looking barns, but it felt more right than anything Adam had ever done. He had known, in his heart, that he and Ronan were meant to spend their lives side by side, and nothing else had mattered in that moment. There was nothing to discuss. Then Adam had to finish med school and Ronan was busy with the barns and getting his GED and the topic of children never came up. Now, Adam felt like he would burst if they didn’t discuss it soon. There was a slight problem, however: Adam didn’t want to bring just any child into their family. He wanted Brady.

He wasn’t quite sure why he had fallen so in love with Brady so quickly. It was as if one minute the child was a perfect stranger and the next they had bonded so deeply Adam feared parting would feel like his soul was being torn in half. God, he was being dramatic again. He was just a baby. A sweet, frightened baby who was currently panting against Adam’s forearm as he rode out his tremors. His little body was coiled tight with tension, but at least he wasn’t screaming anymore, as he had been when Adam arrived that morning. Adam held him closer, wishing he could take the pain away. He was in trouble.

“Shhh…” Adam hushed Brady’s whimpers, bouncing him slightly as he paced the NICU. “It’s alright, baby boy. I’ve got you.”

“Oh good, you’re here,” said Rhonda as she wheeled a small IV into the room. “Dr. Myers is going to start him on a small morphine drip to help ease some of the pain. She said it would be better if you held him while I do it so he’s more relaxed, but I was afraid you’d left already. You’re shift ended three hours ago.”

“I know, but he was having a rough day. I didn’t want to leave him,” Adam confessed, feeling ridiculous as a blush crawled up his neck. Rhonda fixed him with a knowing look and he peered back down at Brady to avoid it. People were looking at him like that more and more often these days. 

Rhonda inserted the IV as Adam held Brady, cooing at him as he started to cry. After a few minutes of distressed tears, Brady began to relax, his rigid muscles growing limp. Adam watched as the pain faded from the babies pinched face. A small smile replaced the almost constant pout that the baby sported. Adam’s heart thumped in his chest, but when the little baby opened his eyes for the first time, his heart stopped beating entirely. 

Brady blinked up at Adam with a set of eyes he would know anywhere. They were wide, bright and Lynch-blue. From the way Rhonda gasped from beside him, he knew she had seen the resemblance too.

Adam knew then, more certainly than he had ever known anything, that this baby was his, one way or another. That terrified him, as the baby’s mother was staying in a room down the hall.  
Yes, Adam was very much in trouble now. 

*

When Adam got home that night it was well past eleven at night. The farmhouse was completely dark, which Adam initially assumed meant Ronan had gone to bed, but when he went to their bedroom, his husband was nowhere to be found. Adam searched the rest of the house to no avail. Through the kitchen window, he could see the warm glow of the barn light coming from the dream barn. He made his way through the fields, running his hands up and down his arms to fight off the cool night breeze. He was exhausted and covered in Brady’s vomit and ready for a bath and a good night’s sleep, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to go to bed without Ronan. He had grown to be dependent on his husband’s warm presence, his strong arms wrapped protectively around him as he slept. He felt a pang of longing ricochet in his chest and he couldn’t help but hope whatever was going on between him and Ronan ended soon because, God, he really missed his husband.

Ronan’s back was to him as he entered the barn, but Adam could see by the way his broad shoulders tensed that he knew Adam was there. Ronan was sorting through the boxes of his father’s dream things aggressively, tossing objects about with abandon. Chainsaw was perched high on a beam, squawking irritably. He only went through his father’s things when he was angry or hurt or craving destruction, because although Ronan was no longer the damaged teenager he once was, he still craved the sting of self-destruction when things got bad. It was something they were still working on stopping. 

“Ronan,” Adam said softly, trying not to flinch as Ronan hurled another object across the room. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

Ronan gave a curt laugh, not turning to give Adam his reply, he said, “nothing, Parrish. I’m fucking peachy.”

Adam watched him continue to throw things, recognizing the distressed coiling of Ronan’s muscles. He knew his husband was hanging on to his composure by a thread. Tentatively, like he was approaching a frightened animal, Adam walked over and laid a hand between Ronan’s taut shoulder blades, watching the tension bleed from them slowly. After all these years, it still stunned Adam that he had this instantaneous effect on Ronan, no matter what the climate was between them. 

Ronan turned to Adam, his face pinched in anguish. He wouldn’t meet Adams eyes, so Adam ran a finger down his cheek, gently, to let Ronan know he had his attention. This is how they communicated best: nonverbally. With touches and soft lips replacing the words they couldn’t get out of their mouths. 

“Are you-” Ronan started, trying to force the obviously hard words out. Adam felt himself straighten, his nerves fraying as Ronan paused. “Is there someone else, Adam?”

“What?” Adam asked, thrown by this question and by the pained sincerity in Ronan’s voice.

“If there is, just tell me. I can take it, I think. But I can’t sit here all day wondering anymore. It’s killing me.” Ronan hissed, trying to blink away the sudden wetness in his angry eyes. 

“Why the hell would you think there is someone else?” Adam asked, trying to meet Ronan’s eyes. The other man looked put-out at having to explain himself, but when they finally locked eyes, it all came pouring out of him. 

“You’re always leaving early to go to work, and then coming home way past the end of your shift. At first, I thought it was just you being your workaholic self, but that’s not it, is it?” Ronan asked, running a hand through his dark curls. “I mean, Jesus, Adam, the only time I see you anymore is right before you pass out in our bed at night and even then you’re…distant...like you’re thinking about something or someone else. Just tell me what’s going on.”

Adam stared up at Ronan in complete disbelief. He would have laughed at the notion if the expression Ronan wore wasn’t so heartbroken and if there wasn’t a lump forming in his own throat from unreleased tears building. He could see how Ronan would have misunderstood, but didn’t he know how much Adam worshipped him? There had never been anyone who had even come close to being Ronan Lynch. He was it for Adam. He lifted his hands and cupped Ronan’s warm cheek, rubbing his thumbs across sharp cheekbones. He was angry with himself. He could see the pain he was causing blatantly in Ronan’s eyes. Why hadn’t he seen it before?

“Ronan, I’m not cheating on you. Okay? I love you, honey, you know that,” Adam said, letting his southern drawl ooze out because he knew Ronan liked it. Adam pulled his freakishly tall husband down to plant a kiss on his forehead, whispering a promise he had made years ago between his eyebrows. 

“I love you, too,” Ronan mumbled. He looked like a kicked puppy, but his eyes were softening. Adam knew Ronan believed him. He wanted nothing more than to pull him back to the house and kiss the pout off his face, but there was something he had to do.

“There is…someone else, Ro, but it’s not what you think,” Adam admitted, watching confusion cloud his husband’s features. “Will you let me show you?”

After a moment of hesitation, Ronan nodded, letting Adam intertwine their fingers and pull him towards the BMW.

The ride to the hospital was spent in silence, and Adams heart was jack-rabbiting inside his chest. He wasn’t sure if Ronan could feel the hand that was still clamed tightly in his shaking slightly, but if he did, he didn’t make it known. Adam was so nervous, he felt sick. His two great loves would be meeting. He could only hope it went well.

The peds wing was tame in the early hours of the day, besides a few hushed voices and a ringing phone. Rhonda was sitting at the nurse’s station, filing her nails. She grinned when she saw Ronan, looking uncomfortable yet godly under the florescent lights.

“There’s the handsome couple. I was wondering when Adam was going to bring you to see him,” Rhonda said, flicking a look at Adam who had the decency to blush. Ronan sent a wink her way, and Adam could see her melting. Before she could pounce on him, Adam pulled Ronan toward the NICU.

“We’ll just be a few minutes, Rhonda,” Adam said.

“Take your time, loves,” said Rhonda, returning to work on her nails again.

The NICU was empty despite one nurse, Rosa, who was standing guard of Brady, the only baby left in the NICU. She had grown quite fond of Adam recently, so she left with a smile and a wave so Adam could be alone with him. 

Adam went straight to the incubator, smiling down at Brady, who blinked lazily up at him. The poor thing didn’t get much sleep, but he was still holding on to the last on the morphine he had been given earlier, so he was relaxed, at least. Adam picked him up, his smile growing as Brady nuzzled against him. 

“I know, I was just here,” Adam cooed at him. “I couldn’t stay away.”

“Adam-” Ronan started quizzically, startling Adam. He had almost forgotten anyone else was in the room. 

“Ro, this is Brady. The other man in my life.” Adam joked, shuffling towards his curious husband. Ronan gazed down at the baby, who gazed right back up at him. “Brady, this is Ronan. He’s the handsome one I’ve been telling you about.”

Brady let out a soft, pleased sound as he smiled faintly up at Ronan. Adam couldn’t help the stupid grin the broke across his face, and when he looked up, there was a matching grin on Ronan’s face. Ronan offered Brady a finger, which the baby grasped tightly. Adam had yet to see Brady take to anyone besides himself. He suspected it was the morphine drip, but there was a bright hope growing in his chest that maybe it was the pull of destiny. 

“Brady has Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. His mother abused heroin while she was pregnant, so he’s been going through withdrawal.”

“Jesus Christ,” Ronan cursed. 

“I’ve been with him every day for the last month. That’s where I’ve been. He’s been really sick, but he’s doing so much better. He’s a fighter,” said Adam. 

“Takes one to know one,” Ronan said, smiling at his husband. Ronan ducked his head to peer down at the baby again, who had started to whimper. Adam could tell the morphine was wearing off. He bounced the baby lightly, rocking from side to side to try and quiet him. Ronan grasped his shoulder, stilling him, and began to drag his index finger from the center of Brady’s forehead to the tip of his nose, over and over. Soon, the baby quieted, blinking up at Ronan drowsily. 

“How did you know-”

“My mom used to do that to Matthew when he was fussy. It calms babies.” Ronan shrugged. Adam kind of wished he wasn’t holding a baby, because he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to make out with his husband more than he did in that moment. 

He was saved from his own desire by Dr. Myers, who startled at the sight of Adam and, maybe more so, the giant, tattooed, leather clad man beside him. 

“Adam,” she said, “I thought you would have headed home by now. Who is this?”  
“Dr. Myers, this is my husband, Ronan. I know you’re not really supposed to bring people here, but-”

“I won’t tell if you don’t, Adam. It’s good for Brady to get some exposure to love,” said Dr. Myers, granting the pair a smile. It shocked him how kind she was being. Even though they’d maintained some kind of mentor-student relationship lately, Dr. Myers was still the last person he would have expected kind words from. He watched as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She looked more tired and melancholy than he had ever seen her.

“What is it?” Adam asked, feeling his heart drop. Dr. Myers sighed before dropping into a rocking chair.

“I just got off the phone with security,” said Dr. Myers. “It appears that Brady’s mother has left before she was granted approval to do so.”

As if he understood these words, Brady started to whimper again. Ronan worked his magic again, but his face was set in frustration, an expression that almost matched the sheer fury in Adam’s face.  
“What do you mean she left?” Adam demanded, perhaps more gruffly than he should have when speaking to his supervisor. “Is she coming back for him?”

“I wouldn’t count on it. We can keep him here for a few more weeks, but-”

“Weeks?” Adam yelped. He felt Ronan lay a steadying hand on his shoulder, which he was grateful for, because he was reeling. He grasped the baby tighter against his chest. He couldn’t lose Brady in a matter of weeks. It might kill him. God, he definitely wasn’t cut out for peds. 

“What will happen to him?” Ronan asked, begging the question Adam feared the answer to.

“Social Services will collect him. He’s almost through the worst of it. They’ll put him in the system and, who knows, maybe he’ll go to a home that knows something about NAS,” Dr. Myers sighed. She sounded to doubtful for Adam.

“Christ.” Ronan cursed, laying his palm on Brady’s small skull. Brady smiled up at him, which splintered Adam’s heart even further. 

“He’s tough. He’ll power through,” Dr. Myers said hopefully. She set her gaze on Adam, then, “I’m sorry I let you get so attached, Adam. I should have known this would happen. You’re just so good with him. I’ll try to get you on a different rotation-”  
“No!” Adam jumped, startling the baby, who began to whimper. Adam shifted him to his shoulder and began to rub soothing circles on his back. He tried not to blush at the way Ronan was staring at him with fondness and awe in his eyes. “I can’t leave him. Not now.”

Dr. Myers hesitated before conceding with a short nod. She stood and went to Brady, running a hand over his fuzzy head. 

“He’s a sweet boy,” she said. “I hope he finds someone who will love him the way he deserves.”

She flicked her heavy gaze to Adam and Ronan, and once again, he felt like she knew something they didn’t. Then, she gathered her clipboard and went back to her nightly rounds, giving them both a wave before she left the room. 

Brady’s eyes were drifting shut, signaling that he was about to get some well-deserved sleep. Adam pulled him close, dropping a few gentle kisses on his cheek, something he really wasn’t supposed to do, but couldn’t resist in that moment. He laid him back in the incubator and held his little hand until his eyes closed. Then, before he could grab him and run away with him, Adam took Ronan’s hand and led him out of the hospital. 

Adam was fighting off tears the whole way home. He felt ridiculous. He had no parental claim to this child. Still, no one had ever stolen his heart quite so quickly. He hated leaving Brady every night, and he loathed the thought of him being abandoned to foster parents who wouldn’t love him. Adam had grown up in a home with no love or affection, which was hard enough without having any of the life-long effects Brady would be struggling with due to NAS. He tried to think about Brady, a special needs child, growing up in a home like his childhood home, with parents who viewed as a burden instead of the gift he was. It made him sick.

Ronan parked the car in the driveway of the barns, but made no move to get out of the car. He, too, looked shaken. If only little Brady knew what kind of effect he had on the people who knew him. 

“Go ahead, tell me I’m an idiot with attachment issues,” said Adam, letting himself feel self-depreciative. He wanted to wallow a little, to be told he was as ridiculous as he felt. He wanted Ronan to call him out, but his husband was silent beside him, his blue eyes fixed distantly on the house in front of them. “Ronan?”

“Did you feel it, too?” Ronan asked quietly. Adam’s breath got caught in his throat at his husband’s words. Ronan glanced over at him, shaking his head. “Fuck, call me crazy, I guess, but…didn’t he feel like-”

“Ours?” Adam supplied hopefully. Ronan gave a shaky nod. “I’m in love with that kid, Ro.”

“I know. Fuck, Adam, seeing you with him…it made me want things. Things I haven’t really wanted before,” Ronan said, squeezing Adam’s shaking hand. Adam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His heart leapt hopefully.

“What things? Baby, I need you to say the words,” said Adam, turning fully in his seat to face Ronan. “Tell me what you think we should do.”

Ronan looked up at him, his blue eyes glistening in the moonlight. He looked so beautiful with the hopeful look in his eyes. Then, he quietly murmured, “what if we looked into fostering? Then, maybe later we can adopt- oof!” Ronan’s words were cut off by Adam’s lips on his. Adam kissed him enthusiastically, trying to communicate all that he felt in that moment. He peppered Ronan’s face with kisses, letting Ronan pull him from the car. He leapt, wrapping his legs around Ronan’s waist, letting his husband carry him inside. 

Later, as they lay beside each other in their warm bed, naked and gazing at each other with a newfound fondness, Adam told Ronan, “I have never been more in love with you, Ronan Niall Lynch.”

“Good,” Ronan chuckled, “because I have a feeling we’re about to put that love to the test.”

“It will hold up,” said Adam. Of this, he was absolutely sure. “So, we’re doing this?”  
Ronan nodded, pulling Adam’s hand to his chest. Ronan’s heart was skittering, but his face was calm. “We’re doing this.”

And they did. Three weeks later, after background checks and interviews had commenced and the guest room of the barns had been redone to suit a little boy, Adam and Ronan brought Brady home.


	2. The First Year Is The Hardest, They Say

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and Ronan introduce Brady to the gang and Ronan struggles with the trials of fatherhood.

Ronan adjusted to fatherhood the best he could, which was to say, not very well at all. 

Adam disagreed with this, often murmuring late at night about how good Ronan was with Brady in his sleep-laden state. He knew Adam was just trying to be encouraging, because Ronan said the same sweet things to him. In actuality, neither of them really knew what they were doing. It all happened so fast. One minute they were two independent beings who lived in perfect harmony but were unknowingly lonely with just each other, the next their world had flipped on its axis. They were parents now, to a very dependent, sick newborn. They didn’t have the time to read up on this parenting thing before they brought Brady home. They just acted. It was crazy, rash and maybe irresponsible, but Ronan would have walked on hot coals before letting some neglectful foster parents get their hands on Brady. The kid may have been testing his survival skills since the day they brought him back to the barns, but Ronan had fallen completely in love with Brady the minute he saw Adam holding him, and Adam was so far gone for the kid it sometimes jolted Ronan to see Adam love so purely. They were partners in this. They would overcome this rough patch. They had to. 

But first, they needed to tell their family that they had a baby. 

It wasn’t that Adam and Ronan were hiding the fact that they had become foster parents to a drug-addled newborn seemingly overnight. It’s just that they were so busy caring for Brady, plus foster parents don’t get paternity leave, so Adam still had to work to maintain his residency. In truth, they just never got around to it. They realized this a week ago, when Blue, Gansey and Henry had left a message on their answering machine saying they would be coming home to Henrietta for a few months before departing on their next adventure. Adam and Ronan had locked eyes as the message played over the sound of their baby’s cries. Ronan was at least comforted to find his look of terror mirrored in Adam’s gaze.

“How are we going to tell them?” Adam gulped, shaking Brady’s bottle before testing it on the back of his hand. He handed it off to Ronan, who coaxed it into Brady’s mouth, silencing his cries. Brady was only ever quiet when he was eating. Ronan bounced on his heels, rocking Brady slightly in his arms. 

“We could call them?” Ronan suggested.

“Yeah sure. ‘Hey guys, hope Asia was swell. Can’t wait to see you! We’ll catch up over Ninos. By the way, we’ll probably be bringing our newborn with us! See you then!’ Let’s see how that goes over,” Adam snorted, taking one of Brady’s little hands in his own. “You’ve told your brothers, right?”

“Well…”

“Ronan,” Adam groaned. 

“Declan is going to lecture me. I meant to call Matty, but he’s been busy with his cohort,” Ronan said, racking his brain to supply valid excuses. Adam didn’t bite, rolling his eyes. 

“Papa is a coward,” Adam crooned to the baby.

“And Daddy’s not much better, buddy,” Ronan retorted. They had thought long and hard about what Brady should call them. They were just fostering for right now, which didn’t really call for parental pet names, but they would eventually adopt him. They didn’t want to confuse him, so it was decided: Papa for Ronan, Daddy for Adam. Ronan had only teased Adam about his name for a few days before Adam had threatened divorce. 

“How about this,” Adam supplied, falling into his favorite arm chair, “next week, we gather everyone here and just bite the bullet in person. Maybe if they see him, they’ll be too charmed to care that we didn’t consult them.”

 

“I wouldn’t hold your breath for that, but it sounds like our best bet,” Ronan had admitted. Adam held his arms out for Brady, smiling as Ronan passed over the infant. Adam gazed down in wonder at Brady, who pulled away from the bottle and burped without ceremony. Adam’s eyes lit up as he laughed. Their family could never speak to them again for this, and Ronan was sure it would be worth it just to see the look of desperate love in Adam’s blue eyes. 

Flash-forward a week, however, and Ronan was thinking of retracting that statement. Ronan was pacing the living room, waiting for everyone to arrive, while Adam cleaned every surface of the room for the second time. They were both nervous wrecks.

Thankfully, Chainsaw squawked a warning at them before anyone even exited their cars. Brady was sleeping upstairs and they didn’t want to wake him. They thought it would be a softer blow if they didn’t ambush them from the moment they opened the door. Adam had spent all last night hiding the baby toys and monitors so they wouldn’t be caught.

Ronan and Adam stood in the doorway, smiling as their friends ascended the porch. It had been almost six months since the pair had seen Blue, Gansey and Henry, who had set off for Asia in November. Declan and Matthew had visited about two months ago to celebrate Niall’s birthday, but it had only been for a few short days before they both headed back to their lives in D.C. Adam and Ronan were overjoyed to see their family, despite the nerves rattling them both. 

After hugs and kisses were passed around liberally, the group made their way to the kitchen to get drinks and snacks before settling in the living room. The fire was going, igniting the room in a warm glow. With all of them here, it felt like home. 

“It’s good to be here all together,” Gansey said, echoing everyone’s thoughts. The sentiment was met with sounds of affirmation.

“How was Asia?” Ronan asked, earning a nudge from Adam and a firm glare. Ronan knew he was putting off the subject, but he couldn’t help it. Declan’s eyes were heavy on him, and it was making him nervous. 

“It was amazing,” Blue piped up, her eyes lighting up as she recounted their trip. Everyone listened, laughing uproariously when she got to the part where Henry woke up in someone else’s hostel decorated in a pink feather boa and face paint. Even Ronan and Adam laughed loudly at the blush crawling up Henry’s neck, forgetting all about their little secret.

That is, until the laughter died down and was replaced by a faint baby cry. 

Everyone tipped their ears curiously toward the sound aside from Adam and Ronan, who sitting pale and frozen in regret.   
“I’m sorry, does anyone else hear a baby or am I still recovering from those last few days in Bangkok?” Henry asked. 

Blue dug around in the couch cushions, pulling out a baby monitor that was set to the lowest volume. Still, you could hear Brady’s tired cries clear as day. All eyes in the room turned to Adam and Ronan.

Adam stood, facing the jury with hesitant eyes. Ronan jumped up to join him. They were in this together. 

“Okay, we have something to show you. No one freak out, just…wait here. We’ll be right back.”

The couple ran up the stairs in tandem, leaving their guests dazed and confused. Moments later, Adam’s voice came over the monitor and the cries quieted. 

“Hi, honey! Good morning!” Adam said. Blue and Gansey looked at each other, startled. They had never heard Adam speak so cheerfully. 

“Did you have a good nap, buddy?” Ronan’s voice came over the speaker next, unbearably soft. “We’ve got some people to introduce you to, dude.”

“Did they…” Declan began, but was cut off by Adam’s voice on the monitor again. 

“Come on, sugar. Let’s go say hi,” he said, and then added, “Ronan, you look like a ghost. Shake it off, baby.”

“Sorry.”

Moments later, soft footsteps thudded down the stairs before the two returned to the living room, Ronan standing in front of Adam protectively. Then, Adam stepped out from behind him, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet as he rocked a tiny baby in his arms. 

“So…this is Brady,” Adam began, coming farther into the room so they could all see the adorable infant up close. Ronan was right on his heels. “He’s-”

“Ours.” Ronan said, finishing his husband’s sentence. Adam cast him a ridiculously fond look. “We took in a foster.”

Brady’s curious eyes turned towards the several shocked faces that surveyed him. The room was eerily quiet for a moment. Then, Brady hiccupped softly, a sound so light and cute that it set off a chorus of voices. Everyone was asking questions at once and the sound grew so thunderous that Brady, sensing distress, started to cry again, his body tensing up like it had in the hospital. Immediately, the infant had the full attention of everyone in the room again as Adam and Ronan sat on the floor beside each other. Adam began to coo at the child while Ronan leveled their guests with a glare.

“I know you all have questions, but you’ll have to ask them quietly and one at a time. Brady gets stressed easily.” Ronan growled, protectively huddling against Adam and Brady as if he thought their family would start lunging at them at any moment. 

“Shhh, it’s alright, sweet boy. Everything’s okay, we’re here, baby,” Adam cooed, smiling down at the little boy as his cries quieted to barely-there whimpers. 

Matthew was the first one to move. Carefully, he slid from his chair and crawled over to where Adam sat. Everyone watched as the curly-headed boy grinned down at Brady, tugging the little boy’s colorfully socked foot playfully. 

“Hi, Brady,” Matthew chirped, “These are some cool socks, dude. I guess I’m your foster-uncle. I’ll come in handy when you’re old enough to need someone to buy you beer.”

Brady let out a delighted giggle, and the whole room sighed in unison. Everyone began to crawl toward the couple and their very cute child. 

“How did this happen?” Gansey asked, gazing down at the baby in awe. Adam began to tell them the story of how he came upon Brady and how he had become attached to the small, frightened baby who reminded him of himself as a child.

“Brady was born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, which means he became addicted to drugs in the womb. Heroin, in this case. His mother ditched him while he was fighting withdrawals,” Adam said, his face souring. Brady, sensing his father’s distress, reaching his little arm up to bop Adam on the nose, immediately drawing a fond smile from the man. 

“Parrish has got it bad for you, little man,” Henry told Brady. “I haven’t seen him this googly-eyed since Lynch took off his shirt in gym class senior year.”

“They’ve both got googly eyes.” Declan mused, his gaze settling on the middle Lynch. It would have been a ridiculous thing to hear Declan say if his gaze weren’t so serious as he turned it on Ronan. “I know you’re both happy, and I’m glad about that, but are you sure you’re ready to foster a baby with exceptional issues?”

This statement earned a growl from Ronan, but he was quieted as Adam placed a soothing hand on his forearm. Calmly, he turned back to his audience. 

“I was raised in a home that had no semblance of love or affection and it nearly ruined me. If we didn’t take him, Brady might have ended up in a similar situation, and we couldn’t let that happen,” Adam said firmly, looking to Ronan for affirmation. “It doesn’t matter if we were ready. He chose us. He’s ours and…we love him.”

“Be still my beating heart!” Henry cried, falling back onto the floor dramatically. “I can’t handle Adam Parrish being a cute dad. I’m about to combust. Someone get 911 dialed in their phone just in case I die spontaneously.” 

“Oh no, whatever would we do then,” Ronan quipped sarcastically. 

“I’m happy for you both,” Gansey spoke, and the pair released a breath they didn’t know they were holding. Their king had given his blessing. 

“Me too,” Blue said, folding herself into Gansey’s arms, “but if I don’t get to hold this baby soon, I’m gonna get hostile.”

And so the day went on as Brady got passed around and cooed at. Adam and Ronan watched as Brady was showered in love. They felt silly for having fears. These people were their world. How could they have thought they would be anything less than encouraging. 

As night drew in, pizza was eaten and stories were swapped. The house was warm with the strongest sense of familial love. They all belonged here, together. Ronan swore he even felt a small, familiar chill as he was watching Gansey feed Brady, and he almost cried as it passed through him. He hadn’t felt that chill in so long. He couldn’t help but feel like Noah was here too, in some way, and that he was falling in love with Brady too. 

People started to dwindle as the night went on, trading promises to see each other later in the week. The cheerful trio loaded into the pig, waving as the engine began to roar. Adam and Ronan watched them go.

“Maybe Brady will take his own share of joyrides in the pig,” Ronan had said.

“Over my dead body,” Adam laughed, “I’m not letting my baby in that death machine.”

Matthew and Declan stayed for coffee and quiet conversation by the fire. Declan held a sleeping Brady in his arms like he was the most precious thing in the world. Ronan could not believe how much Declan resembled Niall Lynch in that moment. 

Later, as Adam went to put the baby in his crib and Matthew and Declan began to inch toward the front door, Declan pulled Ronan aside for the conversation Ronan had been dreading for weeks. 

“Before you start-”

“He’s absolutely beautiful, Ronan,” Declan said, cutting his younger brother off. Ronan’s jaw dropped. “I know we’ve had our differences, but I just want you to know I’m so proud of you for doing this.”

“I had no choice,” Ronan said. “He’s my son.” 

“Another lynch in the world. That’s frightening,” Declan chuckled. 

“He’s not a Lynch yet. Not technically,” Ronan sighed, glancing up at the nursery where he could just barely see Adam rocking the baby.

“Please, have you seen those eyes? He’s a lynch,” Declan said. “I’ve never seen Parrish so smitten. How’s he adjusting?”

“Brady is his world, but I think he’s a little afraid of becoming his father,” Ronan whispered. “I’m afraid I’ll be nothing like mine.”

“You’ll be better,” Declan promised, clamping a hand on Ronan’s shoulder as tears welled in the younger brother’s eyes. “He would be so proud. Mom would be, too.”

“Dec, you ready?” Matthew called from outside. 

“Coming!” Declan called back. Before he went, he kissed Ronan on the head and said, “I’ll bring the kid presents next time. Way to warn me, brat.”  
Ronan could only scoff as Declan went to join Matthew in the car. He watched as the two of them pulled out of the driveway and made their way down the long dirt path. Adam came up on his right, smiling smugly. He said, “I told you they’d be too charmed to mind.”

Ronan punched him in the arm. 

*

Adam and Ronan were in this together, but sometimes, Ronan felt like a single parent. 

Not always, of course. Adam only worked four days a week. When he wasn’t gone, everything was good. So good. It had been six months since they brought Brady home, and when they worked together, it really felt like they were getting the hang of this. Brady was working on a routine now, and their parenting was becoming a well-oiled machine. They took turns getting up at night, doing tasks around the house, feeding and changing and playing with Brady. Some days, they would take him beyond the boundaries of the barns so that he could get a feel for the world. They took him to the park, Ninos, the grocery-store and sometimes they even swung by 300 Fox Way so that the psychics could take turns passing the little tot around, leaving lipstick stains on his pale cheeks. When all three of them were together, life was bliss. They had formed this little family, and it worked.

It worked, that is, when Adam was home. On the days he worked, Ronan sometimes felt like he was drowning.

That sounds dramatic. It’s just that Brady was a bit problematic at times, as most babies with NAS are. Behavioral problems were one of the staple long-tern symptoms of NAS, and Adam had warned him of this before they applied to foster. Ronan had thought he could handle a behavioral-issues; after all, he was Ronan Lynch, king of the emotionally problematic. However, the first time Brady melted down on his watch, Ronan had freaked. He had spent hours running around the house, trying to find something to soothe the baby to no avail. In the end, he had put Brady in the car and drove straight to the hospital. He had sat in the parking lot for twenty minutes, debating whether or not he should go in and beg Adam to come home and help him. In the end, he had decided to just drive around Henrietta until Brady fell asleep in his car seat. When Adam had gotten home that night, Brady had automatically reached for him, as if the day spent with Ronan was a traumatic experience. If Ronan cried in the shower that night, no one had to know. 

He knew he was being sensitive, but Ronan couldn’t help it. He felt like a bad dad. He didn’t know how Adam was so instantly good at it. Brady clung to Adam at all times, and no one was more skilled at calming the baby than Adam. There were days when he would just scream from the moment Adam left in the morning until the time he got home at night. It was disheartening. Ronan had no idea what he was doing.

After a long day with Brady, Ronan was simply exhausted. He was trying his hardest not to fall asleep face-down in spaghetti as Adam chattered away at dinner, oblivious to his spouse’s exhaustion, spooning mashed peas into Brady’s mouth.

“I’m worried about Brady’s speech development,” Adam said, scooping the excess puree from their son’s lip with the plastic spoon. “He should be saying small words at this point.”  
“I’m sure it’s just the NAS,” Ronan shrugged, twirling his spaghetti absently. “I read somewhere that’s one of the main long-tern effects.

“That doesn’t mean we should be encouraging him to learn words,” Adam said, wiping Brady’s mouth. The baby chirruped at Adam and smacked his hands happily against his high-chair. Adam grinned goofily at him before aiming another spoonful toward his mouth. “I don’t think we’re doing enough. Maybe you should work with him during that day, try to get him to repeat-”

“Jesus, Adam!” Ronan stood hastily, knocking his chair back in the process. Adam’s head snapped around to look at him. “Just stop. That’s enough.”

Adam looked dumbfounded by his husband’s outburst. “Ronan-”

“No. Why don’t you stay home and help Brady with his words. You’re the one he likes,” Ronan hissed, grabbing his plate and tossing it roughly in the sink. “God knows if I try he might never speak!”

For a moment, to only sound in the room was the sound of Ronan’s labored breathing. Then, as if just sensing the tension, Brady let out a distressed, ear-splitting wail and Ronan had to go go go. Before Adam could say a word, Ronan slammed the back door open and stalked through the fields.

Adam found him a few hours later, sitting in his mother’s favorite rocking chair on the front porch. He had stomped around for a bit in the dream barn, throwing things and cursing, hoping for some kind of release that would never come. Eventually, he ended up back on the porch, his eyes set on the violet horizon. 

Adam hopped up on the banister, invading Ronan’s line of sight. After a few moments of tense quiet interrupted only by the creaking of the rocking chair, Adam stopped Ronan’s rocking with a gentle nudge of his foot and cocked his head to the side. 

“What’s up, darlin?” Adam drawled. Ronan let go of a long sigh, squeezing the bridge of his nose with two shaky fingers.

“Our baby hates me,” Ronan said finally. This drew a bubbly laugh from Adam’s throat, earning him a signature Ronan-glare. 

“What are you talking about?” Adam asked.

“I’m talking about how Brady breaks down whenever you leave him in my care for more than five minutes. He screams bloody murder, he won’t let me know what he wants, he’s cranky all day and then you come home and suddenly all is well,” Ronan huffed. “I’m so tired. And I know I sound ridiculous, but I don’t think I’m ever going to get the hang of this. I’m sorry.”

“You’re right, you sound ridiculous,” Adam said immediately. This was not the reaction Ronan was expecting. His head snapped up to look at Adam, who was staring down at him in fond exasperation. “Ronan, every time you go out to the fields to work, Brady points out the window and yells. He wants to go with you, and when I say no, he shrieks until you come back inside. When I give him a bath, he cries, because I can never get the temperature right like you can. I feel like a bad parent in comparison to you.”

Ronan stared at Adam in disbelief, but Ronan could tell he was telling the truth. He hadn’t thought of it that way. He had only ever seen Brady behave for Adam.

Adam jumped off the banister and plopped down in Adam’s lap. Even as a grown adult, he was as light as he was in high school. Adam nuzzled his nose against Ronan’s muscled jaw, peppering the harsh curve with soft kisses.

“He love you, baby. He’s just…a baby. Screaming is what they do best. It will take a while, but we’ll get the hang of this,” Adam whispered. “You’re the best dad that kid could ask for.”

“That’s you,” Ronan said, pulling Adam closer.

“We’re not playing that game,” Adam laughed. Then, dropping his voice to a low growl, Adam said, “so I know you’re tired, but it’s been a while…do you think you’d be up for-”

“Yes,” Ronan purred, scooping Adam up in his arms. The other man yelped, his bright laugh echoing in the night.

“Ronan, what are you doing?” Adam guffawed. Ronan nudged the front door open with his boot.

“Don’t ask stupid questions, Dr. Parrish,” Ronan said as he began to bound up the stairs, loving the way Adam soft laugh was still ringing in his ear when Adam began to bite at his earlobe softly. 

Adam was right, things didn’t get easier for a while, but a week after that night, Brady finally said his first word.

“Papa!” The little boy shouted when he came in from working in the barns. Adam sent a smug look his way as Brady leaned towards Ronan, his arms stretched out in a plea for attention. Ronan took him from Adam’s arms happily and went to run a bath for the baby, one that was the perfect temperature. 

It was the little victories that made Ronan feel like maybe he didn’t suck completely. He no longer felt like he was drowning all the time. When Brady smiled up at him from the soapy tub, it felt a little more like coming up for air.


	3. Happy Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A year in holidays and some very bad news.

Adam had no idea how to go about planning a children’s birthday party. His birth had never been a cause for celebration growing up. The only thing he can remember his mother doing for him was bringing home a stale chocolate chip muffin from her work and sticking a match in it when he turned six. His father hadn’t ever remembered his birthdays, which is partly why he felt so strongly about throwing a nice party for Brady. Although the child was turning one and probably wouldn’t remember anything later in life, Adam wanted him to be able to look back through photo albums and see just how much he was loved. He didn’t want to be anything like his father. The only problem was, he had no idea how to begin. 

Luckily, Henry did. 

Henry had squealed when Adam asked him to help plan the party, clapping his hands giddily at the prospect of planning his first Cheng party in years. Adam gently, but sternly, reminded him that it was a kid’s birthday party and that all activities should be appropriate. Henry waved him off, promising good behavior, but there was still a slight twinkle of mischief in his eyes. 

“Leave it to me, Parrish, my man,” Henry cried gallantly, practically running to his car. Adam felt dazed by the sudden burst in energy.

“Where are you going?” Adam called after him from the porch, bouncing Brady on his hip.

“To call in reinforcements!” Henry cheered before he sped down the drive.

“Uh-oh!” Brady said, playing with the buttons on Adam’s flannel. 

“Uh-oh indeed, Brady,” Adam said, pressing a kiss to the baby’s temple. 

Adam was very much regretting giving Henry free reign over this party. He had called Henry to ask for some details and to ask what he could do. Adam hated being stagnant, especially when it came to doing this for his family. Henry knew this, of course, and refused to give away any information no matter how much Adam begged.

“Have no fear, Adam! My troops are on it,” Henry chirped into his phone, ignoring the frustrated groan on the other end. Adam was at least comforted by the knowledge that Henry’s troops most likely consisted of Blue and Gansey, and while Gansey probably couldn’t be trusted, Blue would save the day if all else failed. “By the way, can we use one of the barns?”

“I mean I guess we could clear one out. Why?” Adam asked, feeling his anxiety spike at Henry chuckled maniacally.

“You’ll see, my dear! Ta-ta for now!” Henry said.

“Henry, wait-” but before Adam could question him further, he was promptly hung up on. 

“I told you that was a bad idea,” Ronan laughed from where he laid belly-down on the floor. He had been trying to get Brady on the road to walking, since he only picked up crawling a week before, almost two months late. He stretched out his hands encouragingly toward Brady, who was struggling to crawl toward him. “Come on, buddy. You’ve got this.”

Brady’s tiny tongue jutted out in concentration as he pulled himself up on all fours. The little boy clumsily began to make his way towards Ronan, who was cheering him on. When Brady reached him, Ronan scooped the baby up and flopped on his back, holding Brady high above him. 

“Nice job, super man!” Ronan cheered, delighting in the way Brady was laughing at his antics. 

Adam dropped down to lay next to Ronan as the man set the baby back on the ground for more practice. Once Brady was preoccupied with the task of scooting himself around the living room, Ronan took one of Adam’s hands and began to play with his elegant fingers, one of his favorite pastimes. 

“I should have just asked you,” Adam huffed, using his other hand to bat the hair out of his eyes. “You must have had some pretty great parties as a kid.”

“Yah, Mom was really into birthdays,” Ronan said quietly, adopting the far-away, sentimental stare he always took on when he talked about his parents. Adam’s squeezed his hand encouragingly. “But it wasn’t the parties I remember.”

“What was it?” Adam asked, earning a shrug from Ronan.

“I don’t know. I guess…just being together. The whole family would come in and we’d play music and stuff our faces,” Ronan said with a smile. “It was seeing how many people came out for you that was so special.”

Adam thought about this, about his childhood in the double-wide, and could understand. When his mother had given him that muffin, he had felt so ridiculously special. He thought about the differences between his birthdays at home and the ones he had spent with his adopted family, with Ronan. It wasn’t the gifts that made him happy. It was the people around him.

Adam turned his head to give Ronan a soft, chaste kiss on the lips. He felt Ronan’s lips curve into a small smile beneath his before he pulled away, brushing their noses together. 

“Love you,” Adam whispered. Ronan’s mouth quirked into a soft smirk.

“Love you too. Even when you’re overreacting,” Ronan teased, earning a playful punch to the arm. “The party will be great, love.”

“I know,” Adam sighed, letting his head rest as he watched Brady crawl around. He just wanted to give his son all of the things he never had- love included. 

As it turns out, the party was better than anything Adam could have dreamed for Brady. Henry had shown up with Blue and Gansey on his heels at nine that February day and by noon, the entire barn had been transformed. The picnic tables had been pulled inside and set up all around, beautiful centerpieces set on them. In the far corner, a trampoline and games were set up for the kids of Adam’s work associates. The whole barn looked rustic and beautiful with white Christmas lights strung up in every direction. There was food and drinks and music and warmth. The whole place radiated with the love and dedication that had been put into planning it. Adam was a little choked up as he went up to Henry.

“Henry…” Adam started, but he was speechless. Henry’s smile dropped.

“Do you not like it? I told blue the trampoline was tacky. Hold on, Gansey and I can-” Henry was cut off by Adam’s crushing embrace. Henry was shocked into stillness. Adam Parrish did not give out hugs freely unless you were his husband or his baby. Henry couldn’t remember the last time Adam gifted him a physical embrace, unless you count the occasional high-five. Getting this hug made Henry feel like he was being knighted. 

“Thank you,” Adam sniffled. “It’s everything I wanted for him and more.”

The day was beautiful. Everyone they knew had come out to celebrate Brady’s birthday. The old barn echoed with laughter and good wishes, and Adam felt full as he watched Brady smile while Gansey walked him around on his feet. 

“This is some party,” Margaret said from behind Adam. He turned to find her eating a slice of cake, looking more informal than he had ever seen her in jeans and a t-shirt. 

“Yeah, it is,” Adam agreed with a smile. Margaret was Brady’s social worker. From the moment she had taken on Brady’s case, she had worked tirelessly to support Adam and Ronan in whatever way she could. She had become a friend. Now, however, there was something worrisome in her eyes.

“Come talk to me really quick,” said Margaret as she nodded toward an empty corner. Adam felt his anxiety spike as they headed over. “I don’t want to scare you, or put a damper in this day, but I found out some information that I just have to tell you.”

“Tell me,” Adam gulped. Margaret wrung her hands, glancing around for eavesdroppers before speaking. 

“Mellissa Moore contacted our offices a few days ago looking for a little boy names Brady James Moore,” said Margaret. Adams faced must have seized up, because she put a steadying hand on his shoulder and went on. “Don’t freak. She didn’t say anything about wanting custody back. I figure she just wants to know he went to a good home, maybe schedule a visit or two. She left, Adam. I don’t think she’s suddenly changing her mind.”

This calmed Adam a bit, but he still had concerns. “She can’t visit unless she’s clean. I won’t expose Brady to that shit.” 

“Completely reasonable,” Margaret agreed. “I’ll call her to tell her as much on Monday. I’m sorry to drop this on you, but don’t let it ruin the party. You don’t have to be worried.”

“Okay,” Adam sighed. “Thank you, Margaret. Let me know how the call goes.”

Adam went back to the table full of his closest friends, trying to engage in the conversation as Ronan wrapped and arm around his waist. Brady crawled from Ronan’s lap to Adam’s, reaching up one chubby hand to cup Adam’s cheek. As Adam stared down at the happy little boy, the wheels in his mind were turning endlessly: what did Mellissa Moore really want?

*************************************************************************************************************************************** 

 

“Look, Parrish!” Adam heard Ronan say from right outside the kitchen. A moment later, he came into the room with Brady on his shoulders, who was decked out in head-to-toe green and sporting a green knit hat with an attached beard made of orange yarn. “I found myself a leprechaun!”

“Oh my god,” Adam cried, one hand pressed against his chest as if it would stop his heart from oozing out of it. “Stay right there. I have to get the camera. I mean it, Lynch, don’t move an inch!”

“Yes sir,” Ronan quipped, smacking Adam’s ass as he skipped past him to find his phone. 

“Ronan, what have we talked about?” Adam shouted over his shoulder as he dug through his briefcase, finally finding his phone. 

“Oh, please!” Ronan laughed. “Brady doesn’t mind, do you, bud?”

Adam came around the corner just in time to hear Brady shout, “No mind, no mind!”

“You don’t mind, Brady,” Adam suggested lightly, trying to help his son form correct sentences. He saw Ronan roll his eyes as he raised the phone. “Smile!”

Adam snapped the picture quickly, before Ronan’s grin melted into a scowl, and sent it to their family before setting it as his screensaver. Ronan came up beside him to inspect the photo before leering at his husband. 

“Hey,” Ronan said, grinning wickedly. “Kiss me, I’m Irish.” 

Adam laughed at his husband, leaning in to kiss him soundly before reaching around to pinch his ass.

“Ow! What was that for?” Ronan yelped. 

“It's Saint Patrick's Day and you’re not wearing green,” Adam shrugged smugly as he went back to making lunch. 

“Me kiss, me kiss!” Brady cried, clapping his little hands. Adam plucked him from Ronan’s shoulders and laughed, pulling the little boy close. 

“If you insist,” Adam said, peppering kisses across Brady’s face playfully as the little boy giggled. Ronan joined into on the kiss attack and the sound of Brady’s sweet laugh echoed throughout the house. 

**************************************************************************************************************************************************

The Henrietta town square was more crowded than it had ever been. The town’s Fourth of July firework show had become the most exciting event of the holiday ever since Kavinsky burned out when they were kids. Families from all over town crowded into the small square every year and turned their eyes up to see the explosions. The air smelled of gunpowder and hot-dogs as the celebration kicked off. 

Adam did not want to be there.

He had tried to veto the idea, but was outvoted by Ronan, who liked explosions, and Brady, who liked seeing the pretty lights and yelling “BOOM” when they went off. Adam had given in, but was aware that it would be a miserable experience, mainly because none of them particularly liked large crowds. It made Adam feel disoriented, relying on his sole hearing ear to maintain awareness of his surroundings. It made Brady stressed out, causing him to cry when the voices got too loud. And Ronan, well… he was Ronan. 

Thankfully, the fearsome threesome was back home from their latest excursion to India and Declan and Matthew had made the drive from D.C., so they were surrounded on all sides by family. It put Adam at ease, but he was still on the lookout for two unfortunately familiar faces. 

“They aren’t here, babe.” Ronan said, squeezing his hand gently. Brady was sitting on his shoulders, swinging his socked feet as he licked a lollipop. He had publically melted down when he was denied the candy earlier, and Adam did not have the fight in him tonight to be holding a screaming toddler all-throughout the fireworks.

“You don’t know that,” Adam sighed, scanning the crowd again. 

“Adam, have your parents ever been the kind of people who went to firework displays?” Ronan challenged, quirking an eyebrow defiantly because he knew he was right. Adam rolled his eyes, because loosened his shoulders, smiling up at Brady. 

“How’re you doing up there, sunshine?” Adam asked the boy, squeezing a little socked foot. 

Before Brady could answer, a thunderous boom sounded and an explosion of color lit the sky above them. The crowed made various noises of awe and Brady squealed, clapping his little hands together in glee.

“Boom boom, Daddy!” Brady cried. “Papa! Boom boom boom!”

“That’s right, Baby! Boom boom!” Adam cheered happily with him, taking one of Brady’s hands in his. While Brady watched the fireworks, gasping in wonder at the vibrancy of them, Adam watched the joy spread over her toddler’s face. The colorful lights lit up his big blue eyes and in the dim light, Adam could just make out the deep dimples in his cheeks. It struck Adam for the millionth time how lucky he had been to have been put on that damn peds rotation on February day. 

When Adam glanced down, he found Ronan’s fond gaze set on him. Adam couldn’t even remember how many times he thought about how he had lucked out with Ronan. He was staring back at his perfect match, one half of his heart. The other half was bouncing wildly on his shoulders as the display ended.

As they drove back to the barns, Adam listened as Brady’s breathing evened out and glanced in the rearview to find him passed out in his car seat. He clutched his stuffed bear to his chest tightly. The sight made Adam melt a little. 

“I’m glad we went,” Adam told Ronan. 

“I knew you would be,” Ronan said smugly. This earned him a punch to the arm. 

What could he say? No one knew Adam quite like Ronan Lynch did. 

*******************************************************************************************************************************************

The whole gang was gathered in the kitchen when Adam came rushing in, dressed head-to-toe in silver, flushed and giddy.

“Are you guys ready?” Adam asked breathlessly. Everyone jumped for their phones as they heard the thud of footsteps coming down the stairs. Then, Brady waddled clumsily, but independently, into the kitchen, dressed as a little lion. 

“Roar!” Brady shouted, and right on cue, everyone melted. 

“I’m dying,” Henry said, throwing up his hands like he was inconvenienced by this. He was dressed as the Wizard of Oz, glittering in green. “I’m officially dead.”

“We can share a grave,” said Blue, who was dressed as the modern day Dorothy Gale, right down to the red Doc Martins. 

“Looking good, Brady!” Gansey said, scooping up his honorary nephew. Brady poked at his Scarecrow makeup. 

“He’s adorable,” Adam said, grinning maniacally, “but that wasn’t what I was referring to.”

Right on cue, Ronan walked into the kitchen, green face scowling, clad in green-and-black striped pants, a black tank top, his leather jacket and, per Adam’s request, an absolutely ridiculous witch’s hat.

“Not a word,” Ronan growled. It took only a second for the rambunctious laughter to fill the room. You could almost see the blush through the green paint. “I hate all of you.”

“Papa, papa!” Brady said, galloping around Ronan’s legs. “Witch is dead, witch is dead!”

This set off even more laughter. 

“Come here, you cowardly lion,” Ronan said, scooping Brady up and flipping him upside down. Adam took this chance to tickle the life out of his son, ignoring his shrieks and going for the really good spots.

Ronan set Brady down and Adam made him stand in front of the front door with his candy basket for an obligatory first Halloween picture. 

“What do you say, Brady-bug?” Ronan asked, standing over Adam’s shoulder as he snapped pictures. 

“Trick or treat!” The little boy cheered as the flash went off. 

Later, Adam would frame his favorite picture of the night, one Maura took once they had gotten to Fox Way to trick-or-treat with Blue’s cousins. All of them were lined up on the front porch, grinning. Front and center, with a chocolate smeared face, was a very happy little lion. 

***************************************************************************************************************************************

Adam poked his head into the nursery, grinning when he saw Brady was already up, standing in his crib with a thumb in his mouth. His teddy was dangling from his other arm. 

“Morning, sweetheart,” Adam said softly, grabbing Brady from under his arms and hauling him into his arms. Mornings were not Brady’s thing. The usually energetic little boy was sleep-soft and quiet as he leaned his head on Adam’s shoulder. “Merry Christmas.”  
Adam grabbed his pacifier from the nightstand and got Brady to replace his thumb with it. For a few minute, Adam stood bouncing on the balls of his feet while Brady became more alert, running a hand through the little boy’s honey curls.

Ronan came in then, peering at the little boy mischievously. Brady perked up. He could easily pick up on Ronan’s excitement as of late. The two had become partners in crime. 

“Buddy…guess who came to visit?” Ronan asked. Brady nearly shot out of Adam’s arms. 

“Santa!” Brady cheered as Adam set him down. The little boy was running by the time he hit the ground. 

Brady’s eyes were as wide as saucers when he saw what waited for him under the tree. Presents wrapped in bright parcels were scattered everywhere. Adam had pleaded with Ronan not to completely spoil Brady, but Ronan claimed dream objects didn’t count as presents. It was a fight he’d been losing since high school. When he saw the joy in Brady’s eyes, he was glad to have lost. 

Brady, Ronan and Adam worked their way through the presents, tears and tossing wrapping paper until the living room was a disaster. Brady got all different kinds of presents, but his favorite, of all things, was a DVD of Oliver & Company, a movie he had been coveting since he saw it at Target last month with Adam. 

“Figures,” Ronan huffed. “I dreamt the kid a stuffed animal that can have real conversations with him, and he likes the DVD you got for $10.99.” 

After presents, the family went to mass at Saint Agnes. Adam still wasn’t keen on the whole religion things, but Brady loved going and the thought of spending the early Christmas hours away from Ronan and Brady was unbearable. During the service, he closed his eyes and listened to the choir sing like he used to when he lived just upstairs. During the lord’s prayer, he felt a little hand curl into his. He looked down to find Brady with his head bowed in reverence, a look that matched Ronan’s perfectly.

Like father, like son.

The day passed in a haze of hot chocolate and Christmas carols. Declan and Matthew came for dinner before heading to Ashley’s dad’s house in Richmond for the weekend. Henry, Gansey and Blue were spending the holiday in New York, but they facetimed from Rockefeller Plaza earlier in the day. It was just the three of them as night set. The family watched Oliver & Company at a blaring volume. Brady was singing the “Good Company” song under his breath. Just as Adam’s eyes were beginning to droop, he heard Ronan bolt from his seat.

“Brady, Adam, come look!”

Confused, Adam scooped Brady off the couch to go to the window where Ronan’s face was pressed against the window. Outside, snow fell softly over the barns. 

“Woah,” Brady breathed, his little nose pressing against the cold glass. 

They watched as the ground became coated in white, making the barns a winter wonderland. That day, Adam had everything he had ever dreamt of: a warm home, a beautiful family and white Christmas. 

****************************************************************************************************************************************

Brady had just blown out the candles on his birthday cake when the doorbell rang. Adam had hardly heard it over the triumphant cheers of their family. This birthday was a smaller affair, just the six of them plus Declan and Matthew. Brady had gotten his big present a few days ago when Ronan took him out to the barns and revealed a brand new baby pig to the two-year-old. Brady named it Oliver. 

As Ronan plucked the candles from the cake and got a knife to cut it, Adam went to the from door. He opened it to find Margaret, standing in the cold. 

“Margaret! What a surprise!” Adam said, waving her in. Margaret peered into the kitchen and saw the party in full swing. 

“Oh God, I completely forgot it was his birthday,” Margaret said regretfully, pressing a palm to her forehead. “I’ll come back later-”

“Don’t be silly,” Adam said, pulling her back from the door. “Come have some cake. Did you have something to tell us?”

“I can tell you later, it’s really okay,” Margaret was still inching toward the door, which did something funny to Adam’s insides. She was avoiding him.

“Margaret,” Adam said coolly, the cheeriness in his voice was gone faster than the speed of light. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Margaret sighed, her shoulders slumping. When she looked up at Adam, her eyes were sorrowful, and Adam’s stomach dropped somewhere around his knees. That was a look that reeked of horrible news. 

“Mellissa Moore went to rehab. Her Lawyers called the office a few nights ago,” Margaret said, her voice thick and sad. “Adam…she’s getting Brady back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! Don't hate me. I would love for this to be just unbearable fluff and no angst, but we have a story to tell, y'all. We'll get through this together.


	4. This Is Not Goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and Ronan spend a perfect day with their son before they have to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thank you all so much for the sweet comments. I'm new to writing fanfiction, and y'all have been so gracious and kind. I know there have been a lot of errors in my last couple of chapters. This is unbetaed and by the time I finish a chapter, I am so tired my eyes don't catch most of the typos. I'm sorry! I'm working on it. I'm sorry for this chapter, by the way. To all of the readers who have commented saying they like the fluff, this will crush you. Keep reading! We'll get through this!

“There has to be something we can do,” Ronan grumbled, pacing the kitchen as he bit on his bracelets in frustration. “What, do they just expect us to hand Brady over to some junkie? He’s our kid.”

“He’s your foster kid. You don’t have any parental claim to him,” Margaret sighed, not lifting her head from where it was buried in her hands. She looked almost as upset as they were.

“That’s bullshit!” Ronan growled. “We raised him. We have been here for every birthday, every nightmare, every first in that kid’s life. We’ve been here every second while she was off getting high as a fucking kite!”

“Ronan is right,” Blue piped up from her perch at the counter. The whole family had canceled their plans for after the party and opted to stay once they heard the news. Adam and Ronan needed support. 

“I know he is,” Margaret said, sitting back in her chair and resting her hands on the kitchen table in defeat, “but Mellissa never formally retracted her rights as a mother. She is technically still his parent, and parents can get their kids back if they prove that their clean and meet the requirements the state mandates.”

Ronan kicked a chair in anger, threading his fingers through his obsidian curls as if he was tempted to pull them from his scalp. Gansey placed a hand on his shoulder and was promptly shrugged off.

“Declan, is there anything you can do? Pull some strings?” Ronan pleaded, turning on his brother who already looked remorseful. 

“I don’t even know who I’d call. Even if I could find some way to keep him here, it wouldn’t be anytime soon. There’s a legal process to this shit. No one is going to risk their reputations by trying to pull a parent and their kid apart.” Declan said.

“I’m his parent.”

Everyone turned to Adam, who had yet to speak since he learned the news. His eyes were trained on the kitchen table, two dark blue irises glistening with angry tears. His jaw was set and he was the kind of infuriated calm that put everyone on edge. 

“Don’t call her his parent again. She couldn’t even stand to look at him when he was born because she didn’t want to see a sick baby. I was the one who loved him through his withdrawals. She doesn’t deserve my son now that he’s healthy. She’s nothing but an egg donor,” Adam hissed, tears falling down his flushed cheeks. Margaret reached across the table to take his hand, but he pulled it out of her reach as if she was a scalding flame. “Excuse me.”

Adam stood from the table and left the kitchen without another word. Everybody watched him leave and the room fell silent with the sinking knowledge that there was nothing they could do. Their family was about to lose its MVP. Adam and Ronan were about to lose everything.

Ronan went after Adam as soon as his brain recovered from the realization and found him in Brady’s room, sitting on the ground next to his crib, staring at the sleeping toddler through the white bars. Adam had his fingers stuck between the bars, stroking the little boy’s pink cheek softly. The sight was enough to knock the breath out of Adam. He didn’t want a world where he couldn’t have this. 

Ronan sat next to Adam and pressed his forehead against the cool bars. He was fighting the urge to breakdown, to cause destruction and implode like he always did when his emotions were too much. He had to keep his cool. He wasn’t a teenager with nothing to lose anymore. He was a husband. A father…for now. 

“I keep trying to figure out how to fix this and I keep coming up empty. The one time I need a solution is the one time I can’t find one. Figures,” Adam said, his voice gravely and coated in defeat. His face caved in, crumpling in a way that frightened Ronan. He’d never seen Adam like this. “I’m not ready to lose my baby.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Ronan hissed, gripping Adam’s face in his hands. “We aren’t losing him. We’ll find a way-”

“There is no way, Ronan,” Adam hissed. “You heard Margaret and Declan. We can’t do anything. We’re useless.”

“What if I dream-”

“What, Ronan?” Adam huffed an unamused, curt laugh. His eyes were dark and devoid of emotion as tears flowed freely from them. “What could you possibly dream? Something to kill Mellissa? You’d have to, because as long as she’s alive, she’s his mother. It’s not an option. We don’t have an option.”

Brady stirred in his crib and his fathers stopped to suck in a harsh breath of anticipation, but when he didn’t wake, Adam spoke again, quietly.

“We were stupid to believe we could just keep him forever. We aren’t his real parents. We’re stand-ins,” Adam sighed, defeated. Ronan look at him sideways, his eyebrows pulled together in an awful mix of hurt and confusion.

“Do you really believe that?” Ronan asked.

No. Adam did not believe that. In all of his years, even the ones that were filled with myths and magic and living forests, he had never believed anything less. He had known since the first time Brady had opened him eyes and smiled at him that He was Brady’s father. He knew, the moment he saw Ronan stroking the tiny baby’s forehead, that Ronan bore the same fate. But it was easier, in this moment, when he felt like he might fall apart at the seams, to deflect. It was what the old Adam Parrish did best. So Adam shrugged, peeled himself off the floor, and left his husband and his child in favor of finding out more information about where Brady would be placed and when. 

Margaret didn’t have much information that night, just that Brady would be taken sometime in the near future. So they waited. They went on with their days. They followed the routine. Adam went to work, and Ronan worked on the farm, and Brady remain blissfully unaware that his live would be uprooted. The “near future” turned out to be two Friday’s past Brady’s birthday. They received the call two days prior and were shell shocked by the lack of time they had. They hadn’t even told Brady yet. 

After delivering this news, Ronan had promptly cursed at Margaret so crudely that she cried a little. It wasn’t really her fault, Ronan knew that, it was just that two days was not enough time. He hadn’t taught Brady to ride a bike or tie his shoes yet. He wanted more time to be a father. He ached for it. 

The day before Brady would be taken, Adam called out of work and he and Ronan got up early to spend the day with Brady. They went to breakfast before setting out to start their day of activities, letting Brady order whatever he wanted off the menu. Brady’s face was overjoyed when the waitress brought him a large stack of double-chocolate pancakes and bacon, and the sight of his wide, toothy smile left the two older men breathless. They locked eyes and made a silent agreement: no fighting, no crying, no rules. They couldn’t fuck this up. They needed one more beautiful, blissful day with their son. 

After breakfast, they headed to the park with a giant bag of bread, Brady squealing in delight as he fed the pond ducks, bending over to let them eat from his hand. The animals allowed him in their vicinity with little fanfare, and whether it was because he was so small or because he was just the kind of kid even animals couldn’t resist loving, Adam and Ronan didn’t quite know. 

They held onto him as they slid down the biggest slide, the one they usually prevented little Brady from going on. Adam sat between Ronan’s legs and held Brady on his lap as the descended. He felt his husband place a small kiss behind his ear, a silent encouragement to keep going. Even with the throbbing ache blossoming in his chest with every minute that passed, Ronan could make him smile. 

They went to Boyd’s auto-shop afterwards. Boyd had a growing collection of broken down vintage cars sitting in the lot behind the shop that Brady was fond of. Adam watched as Ronan and Brady jumped into one of the front seats, pretending they were in a high speed chase. Ronan made the sound effects of a siren and squealing wheels with a strange accuracy. Adam went to track Boyd down and thank him for letting Brady play. Adam had called earlier to ask if they could come by and had nearly broken down on the phone. When Adam stepped into Boyd’s office, the man took one look at his face and pulled him into a crushing hug. It was weird to be hugging his one-time boss that he couldn’t wait to quit on, but Boyd just told Adam, “It never gets easier.”

“What doesn’t?” Adam asked. 

“Fatherhood,” Boyd said, “and once you become a dad, you never stop being one.”

Adam had to turn away to hide his tears. He had already broken one of the rules today. He promised himself he would do better. He had to. He wouldn’t ruin this day. 

After eating lunch at Ninos, Brady announced he wanted to take a walk. Ronan and Adam met each other’s eyes over the toddler’s curly head, silently communicating. Adam almost thought he heard the ghost of a whisper in his deaf ear. Cabeswater wanted to meet Brady, too.

The remnants of Cabeswater weren’t very magical. They had tried to rebuild it, once, but it wasn’t altogether possible to match the forest they had loved. Now, it was nothing more than a forest. Still, Adam felt its presence in small ways. A gust of wind, the smell of earth, the way the trees rustled around them. They seemed to say: we missed you. We love you. We’re sorry. 

Brady shrieked in delight as he somersaulted into a pile of leaves. Adam panicked for a moment, too used to a Cabeswater that could open the ground and swallow a playful two-year-old. That Cabeswater was gone now, void of its power, but Adam still held his breath until Brady popped his head up from where it was buried under debris. 

Adam and Ronan did their best to show Brady how magical the place was. They showed him the biggest trees, the strangest patches of flowers, the way the creek that flowed through was home to some curious fish. The two-year old listened attentively, his eyes wide with wonder. In that moment, he looked more like Gansey than he ever had. 

It was sweet to be back in the forest again, with Ronan and their child. It felt like coming full circle. After all, this was where Adam and Ronan had fallen in love with each other. Back when they were young and boyish and fearful of what loving another man meant for them, this place had been a safe haven. It had been the place where they could make each other smile or stare as long as they pleased without hiding. Adam glanced over at Ronan and found him looking back, just as he always had been. 

Once the sun began to dip behind the trees, they made their way to the front of the forest. Brady walked between them, holding on to their hands as they swung him into the air. Brady’s laugh was like a ringing bell, and Cabeswater sighed around them at the sound, blowing a gust of wind at them. Adam could relate. This kind of love was so easy, and so easy to lose. 

They got back to the barns after the sun had set, and Adam carried Brady inside. Ronan made dinner as Adam helped build a fort in the living room. He wondered if they were spoiling him too much, if this would just hurt later on when he wouldn’t have any of this.

Adam caught himself thinking negatively again and he cursed himself for it. He told himself he didn’t know how things would be for Brady, but the thought turned sour as he remembered the disinterested look in his mother’s eyes when he had first met her. He was starting to feel sick with dread. 

They ate their dinner in the fort while watching Oliver & Company Adam made a mental note to pack the DVD in one of Brady’s bags so he could watch it whenever he wanted to. Ronan kept trying to make jokes with Brady, partly to make the toddler laugh and partly because Adam had been on the verge of tears since he heard Brady singing “Good Company” with the little animated girl on screen.

The credits soon began to roll and Adam realized with dread that this was the moment. They had to tell Brady that when he woke up tomorrow morning, they would get him dressed, help him brush his teeth, feed him breakfast and then put him in a car and say goodbye for what may just be forever. 

Ronan went to sit at the kitchen table and pulled Brady into his lap. Adam contemplated just sitting in the chair across from the pair, but decided it was too far away and opted for kneeling in front of them, taking the little boy’s hands in his. He didn’t know where to start. There were no guidelines for telling your son that you wouldn’t be seeing him anymore. 

“Baby, Papa and Daddy have to tell you something,” Adam choked out, already feeling overwhelmed. Tears welled in his eyes as he said, “I want you to know that we love you more than anything in this world. You’re our world. You know that, right, baby?”

Brady nodded, honey-colored curls bouncing. Adam took a deep breath, glancing up at Ronan. He was shocked to see Ronan already had fat crocodile tears rolling down his cheeks. He took one of his hands from Brady’s and offered it to his husband, who squeezed it encouragingly.

“Brady,” Adam started again, trying to steady his voice as the first tear rolled down his cheek. “Your mommy wants to get to know you. And who could blame her? You’re pretty wonderful.”

Brady cupped one of Adam’s cheeks with his hand and pouted. “Daddy, why are you sad?” 

“I’m not sad, baby,” Adam lied. “I’m so excited for you! You see, your mommy thinks you’re so great that she wants you to go live with her for bit. That way, she can see what a good boy you are every day.”

“No go,” Brady shook his head, confusion crowding his blue eyes. “Brady stay with Daddy and Papa.” 

“I wish you could,” Adam said. “We want you to stay with us, too. But you have to go with your mommy. It’s a rule.”

“It’s going to be so cool, buddy,” Ronan said, coming to Adam’s rescue when he saw him struggling. “You’re gonna get a new room, you get to live in a brand new house-”

“You’re going to be having so much fun, you’ll hardly think of us anymore,” Adam supplied.

“No!” Brady shouted, his face scrunching angrily as tears welled in his eyes. “Brady stay!”

“Baby-”

“No! No Mommy! No no no!” Brady cried, fat tears running down his flushed cheeks, reaching for Adam to comfort him. 

Ronan dropped down from the kitchen chair and sat in front of Adam. Adam came closer to Brady and held his hot cheeks between his hands. All three of them were sobbing at this point, crowded together on the kitchen floor. 

“Yes, baby,” Adam said, trying to train his voice into something that resembled authority. “You have to go. Papa and I don’t any say, or I swear you’d be with us. We love you, Brady James, and we will always be your Daddy and Papa. If you ever need us, we will be there. But you have to go, sweet boy. I’m so sorry.”

“Daddy!” Brady wailed, collapsing into Adam’s arms with a sob. Adam held his son with and iron grip, hoping if he stayed here, holding him like this, no one would be able to pry him away. Ronan wrapped his arms around both of them, kissing Brady on the top of his head over and over. 

After an hour of sitting like that, clutching to each other tightly, Brady had tired himself out with crying. His eyes were drooping as Ronan carried him upstairs to take a bath. Adam grabbed the DVD and headed up to Brady’s room. Here, alone, he allowed himself to cry as he folded Brady’s tiny clothes and packed them away. He allowed himself to think all of the horrible thoughts, like how he would never get to see Brady grow out of these clothes. He wouldn’t get to see Brady grow up. That had been stolen from him. 

He finished backed Brady’s suitcases, setting them inside the closet so that the sight of them wouldn’t upset the child should he wander in the room. It had already been decided that Brady would sleep between Adam and Ronan in their big bed tonight. They needed to be close to him before it was too late. 

Adam turned off the lights in Brady’s nursery and headed down the hall toward their room. Just outside the door, he heard Ronan’s voice. He stopped in his tracks, looking through the crack in the door where he could just make out Ronan holding a sleeping Brady in his arms, bouncing slightly and he sang to him. 

“You and me, together we'll be…forever, you'll see. We'll always be good company, You and me. Just wait and see.” Ronan sang softly, rubbing the little boys back. Adam had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep the loud sob threatening to burst from his chest at bay. He pulled himself away from the door frame and went down to the office so he could cry without waking the little boy. He didn’t know how to stop crying once he’d started. Nothing had ever hurt this bad in his life. Even his father’s fists couldn’t have left an ache of this caliber sitting in his chest like deadweight. 

Adam sat himself down at his desk and put his head in his hands. There was so much he wanted to tell Brady, but the boy was so young, Adam wasn’t sure he’d understand or even remember these things later in life. He had a horrible vision of Brady, grown up and alone, never knowing how ferociously he was loved. Would his mother ever tell him she loved him? Would he go for most of his life without ever hearing those three words, like Adam had until Ronan came along? The thought made him sick. He couldn’t live with that. He wouldn’t.

So Adam did the only thing he could do to ensure that wouldn’t happen. He grabbed a pen. He took out a piece of paper. He started writing. 

***********************************************************************************************************************************

The car pulled into the driveway of the barns at noon the next day. 

Adam, Ronan and Brady had been waiting on the porch for it to come around the bend. Brady sat on the front step, clutching his teddy to his chest unhappily. He had barely spoken since they had woken him at eight. The silence was killing Ronan and Adam, who sat behind him holding each other’s hands with a death-grip. 

Margaret stepped out of the car and waved at the family. Ronan had never apologized for cursing her out, but judging by the way she was looking at them with all the sympathy and kindness she could muster, it had probably been forgiven. She stopped in front of Brady, crouching down to his level. 

“Hi, Brady,” Margaret said. “Are you ready to go meet your mommy?”

Adam and Ronan held their breath, waiting for Brady to meltdown again, maybe throw a punch or a kick in the process. To their surprise, however, Brady just shrugged, his eyes devoid of emotion. That was so much worse than any tantrum could have been. 

Ronan and Adam helped get Brady’s things into the car. He stood back, sucking his thumb, a classic Brady comfort mechanism. Once he was sure Ronan had a handle on the bags, he went over to Margaret, shoving a stack of paper in her hands. 

“These top ones are for her,” Adam pointed out, thumbing through them quickly. “It’s a list of the things Brady is allergic to, what foods he likes and dislikes, how he gets to sleep-”

“I’ll make sure she gets it,” Margaret assured, resting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Adam took a deep breath as he plucked an envelope out of the stack. 

“I need you to hold on to this and give it to him when he’s old enough to understand what happened. I need you to get this into his hands when the time is right. Don’t let her touch it,” Adam sniffed. Margaret nodded, tight lipped, and took the stack from Adam. 

“I want you to know how sorry I am, Adam,” Margaret whispered, tears welling in her own eyes. Adam didn’t hold any of this against her. He knew she didn’t want to take Brady away from them, she was just doing her job. Adam just nodded, quickly wiping his eyes and plastering a smile on his face before turning back to where Ronan was holding Brady in his arms, squeezing him tightly. This was it.

“Brady, baby, let’s go sit for a sec,” Adam said, cocking his head to the side. Ronan set the little boy on his feet, but Brady didn’t budge. 

“No,” Brady frowned. Adam was taken aback. He stretched out his hand to his son. 

“Brady, come on, we don’t have time-”

“No!” He shouted, crossing his arms glumly. Tears began to fall from his cheeks before Adam even recognized they were coming. “Don’t wanna say goodbye!”

Adam’s heart sank. He was losing control of the situation. He went over to Brady and knelt in front of him, taking his face in his hands and staring into those big blue eyes, remembering when they opened for the first time to see Adam. It felt like so long ago and yesterday at the same time.

“That’s good,” Adam said, tears spilling over onto his cheeks already. “Because I’m not gonna say goodbye. Neither of us are. Right, Papa?”

Ronan, as always, had Adam’s back. He fell to his knees beside them and nodded sternly, placing a grounding hand on Brady’s small shoulder. “That’s right.”

“This isn’t goodbye, Brady James,” Adam said fiercely. 

“It’s not?” Brady sobbed, red faced and miserable. 

“No,” Adam promised. “This is a ‘see you later.’ It means that we will see each other again soon, okay, baby?”

Brady was sobbing into Adam’s shoulder at this point. He let the toddler cry for a moment before pulling back to look in his eyes. “Look at me, sweetheart. I. Love. You. Do you understand me? I love you and that will never, ever change.”

“I love Daddy,” Brady cried, nodding his head through thick tears. 

“Brady, if anything happens, or if you need us, or if you just need something, you call us. Okay?” Ronan choked on these words. Adam had never seen Ronan cry more than he had in the last twenty-four hours. Brady nodded soundly and Ronan pulled him into a tight hug, planting one, two, three kisses on his head. “I love you so much, Brady-bug.”

“Love you, Papa,” Brady hiccupped. Behind the little boy, Margaret cleared her throat, earning a cold glare from Ronan. Adam scooped the boy into his arms and carried him to the car, taking extra care to buckle him in slowly. 

“You have teddy?” Adam asked. Brady held up the ratty stuffed animal as proof as he did. 

“Don’t go,” Brady whispered. It was those two words that did Adam is. He quickly pecked the child on the forehead and turn his back to him, burying his face in Ronan’s chest so the child wouldn’t see him cry. He heard the car door slam and the faint sound on Brady’s panicked cries. “Daddy! Papa!”

Adam didn’t turn until he heard the gravel crunching under moving tires. Then, he wiped his tears on Ronan’s black tank and turned to wave at the little boy, who could still see him through the window. He was screaming now, kicking his little legs against the restraints. Adam blew the child a kiss as his little, tear-stained face faded from sight. 

Two years ago they brought a little boy home to the barns, knowing nothing of how fiercely they would love him. Two years later, they watched from the driveway as he was ripped away from them. Adam once mused that parting from the child would feel like his soul was being ripped in half. 

He had been right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've been crying for a few hours straight while writing this chapter. My sweet babies. My heart aches for them. This isn't the last of Brady. He'll be back very soon!


	5. Together We'll Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and Ronan cope with Brady's absence in their own way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thank you so much for all of your sweet comments! I love hearing about what you guys think. I was not expecting such a positive response to this story. Thank you for your positivity. And now, please enjoy a little bit of Pynch fluff and angst from yours truly.  
> (Once again, forgive the typos. It's 4 in the morning and I've been staring at my screen for hours trying to get this chapter to y'all. Enjoy!)

When Ronan opened the door, it became clear to him how grim he looked by the way Henry, Gansey and Blue all inhaled sharply, the breath lodging in their throats. 

“Ronan…” Gansey started, but it seemed he didn’t know what to say. The circles under Ronan’s eyes were so dark it almost looked hike smudged black eyeliner. He was pale and gaunt, his eyes so bloodshot it seemed as if he hadn’t stopped crying since they took Brady. It had been three days. 

“Come in,” Ronan’s shot voice rasped, stepping back to let his best friends inside the house. 

Blue, Gansey and Henry had been in Africa when Ronan texted them the news about Brady. They had been deep in the African Savanna, with no cell service and no way of knowing that thousands of miles away, their best friends were losing everything. When they finally got reception, Gansey had 12 voicemails from Adam and Ronan, and by then it had been too late. Brady was gone. 

The house was dark and cold, feeling more like a morgue than the place where so many of their fondest memories had been had. Blue gulped when she saw the state of it. Things were thrown all over, the lights were all off despite the setting sun, the curtains were drawn and there was a faint, stale smell lingering in the air. Blue and Henry shared a grave look as Ronan brought them into the kitchen, trying haphazardly to clean off the kitchen table but giving up halfway through. Gansey noticed a stack of dishes piling up in the sink, something Adam was typically so meticulous about. Speaking of. 

“Where’s Adam, Ronan?” Gansey asked as they sat. Ronan hung his head, scrunching his blue eyes in pain as he pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“He’s upstairs,” Ronan sighed, dragging a hand down his face. He looked absolutely exhausted, which was saying something for a chronic insomniac. “He’s been a mess. I mean, we both have, but Adam…”

Ronan dropped his head to rest where his arms were braced on the table, taking deep breaths in and out. Gansey, Blue and Henry stared at each other, perplexed. They had battled demons, seen death and gruesome monsters, had come face to face with death on many occasions. Through it all, Adam and Ronan had always been warriors. It made them all a little sick to see the couple so obviously undone. They wanted to do something for them. They had to.

Henry moved first. Rolling up the sleeves of his cashmere sweater, he stood and walked to the sink, beginning to wash, dry and put away the wobbling stack of dishes. Gansey moved from his seat at the head of the table to sit next to Ronan, rubbing comforting circles on the man’s back. This was Gansey’s place, had always been. He could remember sitting just like this after the death of Niall Lynch. As gansey rested his chin on Ronan’s quaking shoulder, he tried to think of something to say, coming up with nothing. The king had no words this time. 

Blue took a deep breath, bracing herself, and started making her way up the stairs. A small hallway light was the only beacon of light in the house, but even in the dark, Blue knew her way around. She found the door to Adam and Ronan’s room cracked, but when she looked inside, she only saw an empty bed, stripped of its pillows and blankets. Maybe Ronan and Adam decided to wash their sheets at least. 

But then she heard it: muffled, pained and raspy- a cough.

From Brady’s room. 

When Blue opened the door to the toddler’s nursery, her breath caught in her throat. Laying on the floor beside Brady’s crib was a frail, unblinking Adam Parrish. She now knew that Ronan and Adam hadn’t stripped their bed. Both Adam and Ronan’s pillows were on the floor, as well as the large quilt. They had been sleeping here. 

Blue felt the tears escape from her eyes before she even recognized she was crying. She had never seen anyone so catatonic, let alone Adam Parrish, who had faced so much in his life and still held his head high through it all. Now, as she stared down at the man, curled in on himself, face eerily blank as tears slipped from his eyes, she didn’t even recognize him. 

Blue did what her mom had done for her in the weeks following Gansey’s not-death and Noah’s disappearance. She dropped down beside him, laying on her side, facing him. She knew he recognized she was there, but he didn’t look at her. His unfeeling, bloodshot eyes stayed fixed on a point just above her head. Blue tucked one of his honey-colored hairs back from his face before laying the hand gently on his cheek. She caught a falling tear with her thumb and brushed it away. 

“Adam…” Blue started, but before she could over him whatever words of comfort she was going to give, Ronan, Gansey and Henry appeared in the doorway. Blue looked up to meet Gansey’s eyes. He looked horrified and lost, a king who had no idea how to rally his men. Blue remembered those brief few minutes, when Gansey had slipped from her life and left a hollowness in her chest. She remembered the ache so well. Some nights, she still woke in the middle of the night gasping and it was there. The ache that was so painfully it made her want to die. Is that how Adam and Ronan felt now, had been feeling for a week now? She had barely survived those few minutes without Richard Campbell Gansey III. How were they still breathing? 

The room was pin-drop quiet for a few still moments. Then, Ronan came to lay on the other side of Adam, wrapping his strong arms around his trembling husband and placing the ghost of a kiss on the back of his neck. Gansey and Henry came to lay down too, the five of them making a large, pathetic heap of limbs. It was only then that Adam’s face crumpled. No sob broke from his throat. It was like he didn’t have it in him. Instead, he just pressed his face into the pillow, quaking. Blue met Ronan’s dark, worried eyes and her stomach twisted. This hole inside them couldn’t be fixed, not by Blue, not by Henry, not even by Gansey. There was only one person in this world who could patch up the once happy couple, and God only knew where he was now. It wasn’t just Adam and Ronan that were broken, either. The house was so empty without the delightful echo of Brady’s twinkling laugh. The house was empty without Brady, and so were they. 

They fell asleep like that, holding on to each other as tightly as they always had. The King and his court, tear stained and utterly broken. 

*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Ronan was at his wit’s end. 

It had been two months since they’d taken Brady and his life was still in shambles. If you had told him three years ago that a two-year-old boy would by his downfall, he would have laughed. If you had told him that the same two-year old boy would be Adam Parrish’s downfall, he would have had you committed. Still, here they were, broken and silent in those cold and empty house. They didn’t speak. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time Adam had said more than a few words to him. Adam woke up every morning, gone to the hospital for a ten-hour work day, then he would come home and go straight to bed. At least he’d started sleeping in their room again. It had been hard to get Adam to start eating again, but after a week of his belligerency and Ronan’s distress, Blue Sargent had stomped into the farm house, sat them both down and force fed them until they were so full they couldn’t stay awake. 

Adam didn’t cry anymore, at least, not in front of Ronan. He was just a blank wall, going through his days without emoting. Ronan, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to stop crying. It was hardest during the day, when Adam was gone and Ronan allowed himself to dream. He would always bring something back that made him think of Brady, causing the tears to come tumbling down his pale cheeks. When he didn’t dream during the day, he worked on the farm. He took care of the animals and fixed whatever needed fixing. He worked himself to the bone and when there was nothing else to fix, he broke something so he’d be constantly distracted. He craved distraction, because it drove his thoughts from blue eyes, honey curls, a red-mouthed grin and a laugh that echoed in his hollow ribcage. It took his thoughts away from his husband, who wouldn’t look at him anymore. This was so much different than grieving his father. He felt so much weaker now. He supposed he could go out and get shit-faced, race some local kids in his BMW and rip himself apart until his whole world was in shreds. But what would that do? Ronan knew what it wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t put his marriage back together. It wouldn’t make his home feel full again. It wouldn’t bring his baby boy back. 

The loneliness was killing his the most. His days were no longer filled with chasing a child around a barn, his nights were devoid of his husband’s laugh and hands and voice. His world was silent. He wanted Adam to talk to him, to say anything, but every night was the same. Adam came home and brushed by without a word. Ronan was running out of options. He had tried to initiate conversation, made up questions to ask Adam and, though he was almost ashamed to admit this, purposely did things he knew typically grated on Adam’s nerves. Adam didn’t even blink an eye. Ronan wasn’t angry at Adam. He knew that he wasn’t ignoring him out of spite. This was just the way Adam was choosing to grieve. But goddammit, Ronan was so lonely and he couldn’t stand another moment of this suffocating silence. 

So Ronan channeled his high school self, the one that was sharper and more ruthless than the wallowing sack of shit he had become, and did exactly what teenage Ronan would have done to get Adam Parrish’s attention: something stupid. 

Adam was lying in bed when Ronan burst into their room at 3 that Saturday afternoon. Adam was off from work and hadn’t moved all morning. Ronan went to the giant, claw-foot bath tub, filling it with icy cold water. Then, when the water was waist high and bone-chilling cold, Ronan went back into the bedroom, gently lifted his impassive husband into his arms and took him to the tub. 

“Ronan?” Adam’s groggy voice made Ronan’s heart skip a beat as the drowsy man blinked up at him. Then, because he missed that voice too much and needed it back, Ronan dropped Adam into the icy water without ceremony.

Ronan watched Adam’s face change as he hit the water. Suddenly, that all-too stoic face was rippling with emotion. First was surprise, his mouth making a round O-shape as the water engulfed him. Then came disbelief, which was probably due to his body registering that a. the water was fucking freezing, b. he was been thrown in, clothes and all and c. the person who through him was his husband. Then, finally, the anger came.

“What the fuck!” Adam scream, staring up at Ronan, his face red and infuriated. “Are you a goddamn psychopath?”

“Wash up, Parrish,” Ronan said, tossing a new bar of soap into the water. Adam picked it up like it was some kind of space metal, staring at it incredulously. “We’re going out.”

“Out?!” Adam shouted. “Why the hell would I want to go out with you? You just threw me in a fucking ice bath!”

“And now you’re talking to me, for the first time in weeks. It was for your own good, asshole,” Ronan quipped, setting a towel out for Adam to dry off with. “Now you’re going to bathe yourself, get dressed and get your catatonic ass in the BMW or I’m gonna do it for you. Understood?”

If looks could kill, Adam would have struck his husband into an early grave with the glare he sent Ronan’s way. The sight of it made Ronan’s heart speed up in excitement. If he could get Parrish to do this, he could get his husband back. At the very least, he could milk a smile out of his today. He knew he could. 

“Get out,” Adam hissed, but he shimmied out of his clothes and threw the soaking wet garments at Ronan’s face with impressive aim. Then, Adam picked up the bar of soap and started to glade it along his arms. When Ronan didn’t move, dazed at the sight of soap on freckled skin, Adam raised an eyebrow at him. “Unless you were planning on joining me in this fucking tundra, I suggest you do as I said.”

Ronan nearly took him up on the obviously insincere gesture, but opted to go get changed instead. As he walked back into the bedroom, a smile split across Ronan’s face, the first real one in weeks. 

Adam came downstairs thirty minutes later, dressed and looking no happier than he had in the cold tub. He crossed his arms over his chest aggressively, cocking one perfectly arched eyebrow at Ronan. 

“Well?” Adam snapped. “I’m bathed, I’m dressed and I’m pissed as hell. You better have something good planned for dragging me out of bed on a Saturday, Lynch.”

Ronan contemplated reminding his husband that while it was a Saturday, it was also nearly evening. However, he could tell by the thin line of his husband’s lips that if he wanted to keep him this way, awake and vibrant, he would have to act fast.

“Get in the car, Adam,” Ronan said, watching the man instinctively soften at the sound of his own name in Ronan’s mouth. Ronan tossed his keys at Adam and said, “you’ll know find out you get us there.”

The car ride was silent, go figure, but not as tense at it could have been. Ronan gave Adam simple directions to their destination: turn right, go straight through the light, turn left turn left JESUS Parris, left!

They pulled into Monmouth manufacturing and it hit both of them more intensely than it should have. Gansey had kept the deed to Monmouth, but it was mostly used for the storage of dream things and souvenirs from the threesome’s wild adventures abroad. Ronan’s room had a single made bed in it, in case they needed somewhere to sleep between countries, but besides that, it was almost always abandoned. Still, even without the people they loved inside it, Monmouth still pulsed with the life they had once known, full of magic, adventure and kinship so strong it couldn’t be severed. 

“Are we visiting Gansey?” Adam asked warily, an excuse already slipping from his tongue. “I don’t really feel like hanging-”

“Shut up, Parrish,” Ronan said before bursting from the car. Adam sighed, long and impatient, before getting out of the car to see what his husband was up to. 

Ronan had the trunk of the BMW popped and Adam watched as he pulled a circular dolly from it along with a long piece of rope. Adam would deny it if you asked him, but his heart skipped a beat when Ronan pulled them out and dropped them on the floor, flicking his uncertain gaze to where Adam stood. 

“I thought we could us some…stress relief,” Ronan said, nudging the Dolly with his foot. He scratched the back of his neck self-consciously, keeping his eyes firmly on his black combat boots. “I just…I remember when we were kids we would do dumb shit like this and even though it hurt, we were always lighter after. Happier. I thought…we could use a little happiness right now.”

Adam and Ronan stood there looking at each other for a long, stretching moment. Ronan felt his heart cramp as Adam stared at him blankly. He probably thought Ronan was being an asshole. Of course dragging each other on a dolly wouldn’t cure the plague in their hearts. Why had Ronan thought this would work?

But then, something beautiful happened. Adam smirked. It was not quite a smile, not quite a grin, but it was the closest Adam had come to either in so, so long. Ronan watched, breathless, as Adam crouched at Ronan’s feet, reached for the rope and began to attach it to the dolly, then the car. When he’d safely secured it to both, he looked up at Ronan, all curious blue eyes and long, dusty lashes, and handed him the keys. 

“I’m going first,” Adam said. It took Ronan a moment to process this, but when he did, he nearly ran to the driver’s side door. “And Ro?”

Ronan turned to look at Adam, who was now sitting on the dolly. Ronan was have a beautiful flashback of the first time they had done this, so many years ago, when Adam said, “Don’t you dare go below 30.”

Ronan couldn’t help the grin that broke across his face as he climbed into the car. 

Despite Adam’s directions, he started slow, carefully turning in circles until he heard Adam’s voice through the open window, “You’re going pretty slow, Lynch. Lost your touch?”

Oh, that did it. If Adam wanted to play, Ronan could play. 

Ronan pressed hard on the gas, the tires kicking up dirt and gravel as the car whipped the dolly to the side. He watched through the rearview as Adam swung to the left, holding onto the dolly for deep life. The man let out a victorious whoop, and then, “is that all you’ve got?!”

Ronan continued to fling Adam around on the dolly, his heart mending itself with every shout and cheer his husband let out. He drove like the damned, skirting corners and carving perfect figure eights into the asphalt. He did some more intricate tricks, too, just to show off. He took one particularly sharp turn and watched as the dolly went airborne. Adam went flying into the air and for one perfect moment, he floated there, weightless. Then, gravity caught up with him, and so did the pavement. The man hit the ground hard and laid there for a moment, unmoving. Ronan leapt from the car, jogging over to Adam, who was now turning slowly and painfully onto his back. 

“Shit, you okay?” Ronan called out breathlessly when he was a few feet away. “I didn’t mean to throw you that hard.”

Adam was still for a moment and then he began to shake. Shit, was he crying? Ronan had for sure thrown him harder when they were younger, but maybe Adam was too old for that now. 

Then, Adam flopped all the way onto his back and Ronan almost gasped. He wasn’t crying. He was laughing…hysterically. He laughed until he was holding his gut and small tears were appearing at the corner of his eyes and somewhere along the way, Ronan had started laughing too. And then they were both hysterical, falling into each other, giggling like school girl. 

“Oh god,” Adam said, wiping his eyes as his laughter subsided. “I haven’t felt like that in years.”

“I thought I’d broken you, old man,” Ronan said, offering Adam a hand to help him up. Adam shook his head, his eyes become a little more somber. 

“I’m a little broken,” Adam sighed, a tiny smile still on his face. Ronan crouched next to him, laying a calloused hand on Adam’s cheek. 

“I know,” Ronan said. “So am I.”

Adam took Ronan’s hand then, letting him haul him to his feet. Then, that little smirk was back to play. “Your turn?” 

Once the sun had begun to set and the couple started to tire of their games, they left in search of food, having forgotten to eat before they left. Ninos was a no-go tonight. There were too many memories there and Ronan didn’t want to shatter this sudden lightness between them. He racked his brain for a place before setting off for Misty’s Diner, a place his family had frequented when they were young. Ronan hadn’t been back in over fifteen years, but his mouth was suddenly watering for their high-stacked pancakes and crispy bacon. 

When they walked in, it was almost like walking into one of Ronan’s dreams. The whole place had a 1950’s style ambiance, with red leather booths, a checkered floor and even an old jukebox in the back of the restaurant softly playing ancient pop songs. Ronan went straight for his family’s old booth, the big one in the corner. He realized it may have been rude to take the biggest booth when there were only two of them, but it was pretty dead and sitting anywhere else would have felt wrong. 

Adam and Ronan placed their order with Doris, an older woman who hadn’t worked there when Ronan frequented the place. Ronan got his pancakes and Adam got a burger that was bigger than his hand, opened wide. The two of them ate in almost silence, save a few led jokes from Ronan and many reprimands from Adam. Even though they were bickering back and forth, Ronan felt almost whole. Adam was smiling again. He would bicker until his lips felt off and his throat started to bleed if it meant he got to keep Adam’s wide, elastic smile.

The car ride home was quiet, the hum of the radio serving as background noise for their thoughts. When Ronan pulled up the drive and parked the car, neither of the immediately moved to get out. They sat there, silent, looking out of the half-lit property with unseeing eyes. 

“I had fun,” Adam mused, a small smile quirking the corner of his lips. He turned his head toward Ronan, resting it against the headrest lazily. “Thank you for dumping me in an ice bath.”

“Anytime, love,” Ronan smirked, his hand cupping Adam’s cheek, his thumb brushing a pale eyebrow. They sat like that for a second, or a minute, or an hour before Adam pulled away, opening his door and slamming it behind him in a flash. He was in the house before Ronan could process what happened. 

Shit.

Ronan followed behind, hands stuffed in his pockets like a chastised child. When he entered the house, there was no sign of Adam. He looked for him in all of his usual places: the kitchen, the living room, Brady’s room, but he was nowhere to be found. He was walking back down the stairs when a hand latched around his wrist and tugged him into their bedroom.

Adam’s blue eyes were like two oceans as they looked up at him in the dark. Call it a trick of the light, but Ronan could swear he almost looked nervous. Then, in the time it took to take a single breath, Adam’s lips were on Ronan’s again and the world promptly stopped turning.

Kissing Adam was one of those things that you didn’t know you needed to survive until you lost them. For months, Ronan had been missing them, so afraid of crossing a line to seek them out. Now, Ronan was starving for him. It took only a moment for Ronan to react, quite enthusiastically, too, to the sensation of Adam coming back to him. It was rough and sweet and sloppy and perfect. Adam pushed Ronan onto the unmade bed, staring down at him from under those lashes of his as he slowly stripped himself bare and Ronan was done for.

After they had made love, and made love and made love again, they laid bare underneath the sheets, just as they had once upon a time when having a son was nothing more than a crazy notion. Adam threaded his fingers through Ronan’s, squeezing tightly like the contact was the only thing anchoring him. 

“Do you think we’ll ever move on from this?” Adam whispered into the darkness, his gaze set on the ceiling. 

“I don’t know,” Ronan said honestly. “I don’t know if it’s possible to get over losing your child.”

“He’s not dead,” Adam chided, “but…I know what you’re saying. I feel like I’m suffocating. Every time I see a kid in a grocery store or at the hospital, it feels like I’ll never be able to catch my breath again. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Do what?” Ronan asked, his brows coming together. Adam shrugged, his eyes still trained stubbornly on the ceiling. 

“You seem so…okay. You get up in the morning, you go about your day. I wouldn’t have even left the house today if you hadn’t made me,” said Adam. Ronan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He thought Ronan was okay? Had he not seen him weeping like a baby?

And then Ronan realize that no, Adam had not seen him. Every time Ronan gave in to the pain, letting himself sob and release the tension in his chest, Adam hadn’t been there. He had been sleeping or at work. Ronan felt suddenly stupid. He sighed, “I have to show you something.”

Adam watched Ronan bend over the bed, digging around underneath it until he found the cardboard box he had hidden there. He hauled it back up onto the bed with them as Adam sat up straight, pulling back the cardboard flaps. 

Dozens of dream things were shoved in here with haste. Brady’s favorite blanket, a pacifier, all of his favorite books. There were clothes and toys that Adam knew couldn’t be Brady’s because he had packed them in his suitcases. Most startlingly, there were almost twenty replicas of Brady’s teddy.

Adam plucked one from the box, his eyes watering at the sight of it. It was perfect, right down to the small tears and sections of matted fur.

“Hug it,” Ronan whispered, his head hung low. Adam brought the bear to his chest and gave it a squeeze. 

“You and me, together we'll be…forever, you'll see. We'll always be good company, You and me. Just wait and see.” The teddy sang. A sob was ripped from Adam’s throat as he clutched the Teddy to him with an Iron-clad grip. Adam looked up to see Ronan’s face drenched with tears.

“Oh, baby…” Adam sniffed, pulling Ronan into his arms. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“We have to get through this together, Adam,” Ronan said tearfully. “I can’t do this without you.”

“We will, baby,” Adam promised. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Ronan sighed, his breath grazing Adam’s neck. “God, Adam…I missed you.”

“I’m here now. I won’t leave you alone again…” Adam promised. He held on fiercely to Ronan until his eyes began to droop. They fell asleep in each other’s arms, so close their noses pressed together. When Ronan woke in the morning, Adam hadn’t left him. He was still beside him in his rightful place.

Adam woke moments later, blue eyes squinting in the bright morning light. Then, he smiled, and hope was a thing with feathers fluttering in Ronan’s heart. 

********************************************************************************************************************************************

“Ronan, you almost ready?” Adam called up the stairs. He checked his watch again. 7:10. They were going to be late for the movie. 

They had decided to start going on little dates after that first day back together. They reasoned that they needed something to help keep the love alive, but that wasn’t a problem. In fact, quite the opposite. Adam and Ronan had never been closer. After that night of truth and coming back to each other, Ronan and Adam hardly left each other’s side. Ronan would come by the hospital for Adam’s lunch breaks and on his days off Adam would help with the farm work. They still had dark days when the pain was so intense it felt like it was splitting their chests open, but they were holding each other together. They were a team: the dreamer and the magician against the world. 

“Coming!” Ronan huffed as he ran down the stairs. He stopped at the bottom to give Adam a quick kiss. “Let me just print the tickets.”

“Ronan,” Adam groaned. “We’re gonna be late!”

“Who cares?” Ronan called over his shoulder as he went to the study. “We always end up making out during it anyway.”

He had a valid point. 

Adam’s phone began to buzz from inside his pocket. Shit, it was his work phone. Ronan would be so pissed if he got called in right before their date. 

Rhonda’s name flashed across the screen. He hoped she was just calling because she was bored and wanted to chat. Adam sighed as he accepted the call, pressing the phone to his hearing ear. 

“Hey Rhonda, now’s not really a good-”

“Adam, you and Ronan need to get to the hospital right now,” Rhonda panted. “I called as fast as I could. They just brought Brady in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOWZA. Hope you guys are buckled up. It's about to get bumpy. Leave me some comments!


	6. Never Leaving Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ronan and Adam are reunited with Brady in the worst way possible.
> 
> *Warning: there is a lot of referenced child abuse in this chapter. Read with caution.*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, all! Thank you so much for your beautiful comments! You guys make me smile. Please read the notes at the end of the chapter, I want your thoughts on something! This chapter will probably be rough on y'all, it was rough to write, but this was the first chapter I ever plotted out for this story and the whole story revolves around it. As always, leave me some comments! 
> 
> Love,  
> Mads

Adam Parrish was known at Singer Falls Hospital for his unfailing professionalism and tact. He was calm, cool and collected even in the gravest of cases. His fellow residents envied his ability to remain calm under pressure and his superiors praised him for his constant composure. He was the picture of a perfect doctor in many ways. But when he came bolting through the hospital’s door that night, wide eyed and sprinting like a bat out of hell, his demeanor was anything but collected. 

He skidded to a stop in front of the receptionist’s desk, panting. A blur of black came bursting through the doors moments later, right on his tail. The receptionist stared wide eyed at a disheveled Adam and Ronan, placing her novel down before asking, “What can I do for you, gentlemen?”

“Hi Doris, we’re looking for Brady Moore, Rhonda called to say he can in a while ago,” Adam panted. Even under duress, Adam Parrish was polite. Doris tapped her manicured fingers against her keyboard, her eyes scanning the computer screen quickly before looking back up at the couple.

“He’s on the emergency floor,” Doris informed them and just as quickly as they came, the couple left in search of their son. 

“Is that a bad thing?” Ronan asked as they ran up the steps in the emergency floor. “That he’s in emergency and not peds?”

“Well, it’s not good,” Adam admitted. “It means his injuries are urgent and he could be anywhere on the floor. It also means that they’ll be caring for him sooner, though, so there’s that. We won’t know what’s up until we see him.”

They made it to the emergency floor and began to frantically search for Brady. Adam hadn’t worked in emergency for so long, he’d forgotten how confusing the floor was until he was lost. He had also forgotten how scary it was, with all of the blood and core and screaming patients. How long had his child been sitting among these people?

“This way,” Ronan grunted, barreling through the emergency room. Adam was stunned until he remembered that Ronan was probably a weekly visitor here at one time. 

Ronan and Adam searched frantically for Brady, checking every bed they passed. Ronan pulled every closed curtain open with increasing aggression, earning angered shouts and unkind nicknames from some particularly hostile patients who’d had their privacy revoked. In any other situation, Adam would have scolded Ronan for his lack of tact. Now, however, he was preoccupied by the terrified skittering of his heart. He searched for a flash of honey curls, small, sneakered feet dangling off a bedside, a tiny voice that said-

 

“Daddy!”

Adam whipped around at the sound of the strangled scream so fast he almost fell over and suddenly, there he was. Adam had dreamt of this moment for months. He had imagined Brady stretching out his little arms, a giant grin on his face as Adam took him into his own arms and never let go. He imagined the three of them squeezing each other too tightly, a unit once again. He had thought that when Brady finally came back to him, his heart would be soaring; instead, it dropped somewhere around his knees as he took in the state of his child. 

Brady’s left eye was swollen shut, a purple bruise beginning to blossom there. His lower lip was split and his arms were peppered with fingertip-shaped marks that were yellowing with age. The sight was so familiar to Adam, who had been covered with these kinds of marks all throughout his childhood, and yet at the same time, it was so incredibly foreign seeing them on Brady, who had never suffered more than a rug burn in his life. 

Until now. 

“Oh my God, Brady,” Adam cried, rushing for the child. He thought he might vomit as he gently took the child’s face in his hands. Brady had started crying, whether in relief or in pain, Adam didn’t know. With some difficulty, he took his hands from the child’s face and scooped him into his arms, struggling to hold on as the child quaked. “Oh God. Baby, what did she do to you?”

Ronan had caught up to them by then. Brady had his face tucked into Adam’s shoulder as if he were hiding. When Ronan put his broad, calloused hand on Brady’s rattling back, the toddler looked up in recognition. Ronan sucked in a breath so sharp, Adam feared he might fall over and pass out from lack of oxygen. For a moment, he was frozen, staring at his baby’s muddled face. For a second, Ronan had a horrible flashback to the first day he had seen a hand-shaped bruise wrapped around a seventeen-year-old Adam Parrish’s beautiful, boney wrist. 

And then he lost his fucking mind. 

“Where is she?!” Ronan demanded of the bedside nurse who had been tending to Brady’s wounds. The woman’s eyes widened, looking to Adam for help as Ronan grew red with rage, growling, “I’m going to kill her. Did she bring him here? Bring me to her. I’m going to-”

“Papa,” Brady sobbed, reaching out for his father. All of the fight and adrenaline rushed out of Ronan’s body in a single instant as the terrified toddler’s damp eyes met his. Ronan abandoned his tirade for the moment and went to his family, pressing his forehead against Brady’s in an attempt to ground himself. Brady was there, with them, and he wouldn’t be leaving them again. Ronan would damn well make sure that nothing like this ever happened again. He felt sick that he had let it happen the first time. 

 

“I’m sorry, baby, I’m so sorry,” Adam said, rocking the sobbing child back and forth in an attempt to calm him. Brady was trembling from fear and pain as his sobs shook his little body. Adam kept repeating how sorry he was, over and over until the sound of his voice lulled the child into a calmer state, his sobs subsiding to whimpers. What else could Adam say? He had let this happen. He had known that Mellissa would be an unfit mother. He had known that she was dangerous. But if he had even suspected that he’d be here, cradling a battered child that once had so much joy in his eyes, he would have never, ever, let them take him from them. 

“You’re safe now, honey. I’m so sorry. We will never leave you again, do you hear me? Never,” Adam sealed the promise with a kiss to Brady’s ear and he knew it was the whole truth. This was not how he wanted to get his baby back, but now that he had him, he was never letting go again. 

***********************************************************************************************************************************

Brady was transferred to peds and was kept for observation overnight, and not once did Adam or Ronan leave Brady’s side. It would have taken the hand of God himself to pull them away from Brady at that point, and even that was doubtful. They both guarded him like their lives depended on it. They didn’t sleep. They didn’t eat. They didn’t even go down the hall to the bathroom unless they absolutely couldn’t help it. They had let down their guards once, and their child had paid the price. They would never do it again. 

Brady slept fitfully, waking every twenty minutes with a start and peering around to make sure Ronan and Adam were still there. He wouldn’t let go of them, and they were reluctant to let go too, so the couple took turns holding him, pacing the fluorescently lit room with the little boy in their arms. 

Dr. Myers was on call for the night and Adam was surprised by the wave of relief he felt when she entered the room. She looked exhausted, but she put on her cheeriest smile to talk to Brady, who was cowering against Ronan’s shoulder. 

“I remember you,” Dr. Myers said to the boy. “I knew you when you were really tiny, before your dads even knew you…and I remember thinking how tough you were, even way back then. I’m willing to bet you’re even tougher now. You’re like a super hero!”

At this, Brady would have normally perked up, as Ronan had just begun to expose Brady to the marvel movies before they took him away. He had an affinity for them, and used to love when Ronan would hold him high in the air, running around to barns so fast it felt like the little boy was flying. Now, however, he just stared blankly at her. 

Dr. Myers wanted to run an x-ray to make sure they hadn’t missed anything in their initial inspection. Brady whimpered, skittering out of her reach when she went to take him to the x-ray room. Brady had never liked strangers. Even though Adam had taken to Dr. Myers over the years and whole-heartedly trusted her, he couldn’t deny the way his heart squeezed when another person went to pick Brady up. Was this the new normal? Would Adam and Ronan hover over Brady for the rest of his life? A small, nasty voice inside Adam’s head told him he deserved it. Maybe he did. He definitely didn’t expect to be winning father of the year anytime soon. 

Brady finally relented when Adam took matters into his own hands. He picked Brady up and brought him to the room, laying him down for the x-ray before beckoning Ronan over to him and having him hold Brady while he went to take the x-ray. Ronan sat with Brady, keeping him entertained with stories about Oliver the pig, Chainsaw and all of the other animals back home. When Brady started to wiggle in Ronan’s grasp, Adam began to talk to him over the loudspeaker while simultaneously watching the scans pop up on the screen. He surveyed them while animatedly talking Brady through how x-rays worked. Weirdly, he had never been more thankful for all of his years of medical school than he did in that moment. It was the first time in months he had felt like he was useful to Brady. 

When they had established that nothing was broken or internally bleeding, everyone took a collective deep breath and returned to Brady’s room where a familiar face was waiting for them.

Margaret stood in the far corner, a folder with Brady’s name on it held in her hand as she worried away at one of her nails. When she saw Brady’s face, the color instantly drained from her face. When she saw the look on both Adam and Ronan’s faces, murderous and disappointed, she audibly gulped. 

“I’ll give you some time to talk,” Dr. Myers said quietly, making her exit from the room as the two men glowered at Margaret.

“I know you’re angry-” Margaret started, but she didn’t have time to finish her thought before Adam spoke up. 

“Angry?” Adam scoffed. He gestured to Brady, who was curled into Ronan’s arms half-asleep. “For God’s sake, Margaret, look at our child. We trusted you to check on him, to make sure he was safe in that home and he came back to us looking like this. You think the best word to describe us is angry?”

“I did check on him, Adam, I promise. I was there a few weeks-”

“A few weeks?” Ronan asked incredulously. “Just how many times have you visited him? How long did you leave him alone with her?”

“It wasn’t her who…hit him. She’s…involved with someone. His name is Marcus Hamby. He’s currently in custody,” Margaret informed them, rifling through her papers and handing a picture of the man to Adam. “He wasn’t in town when I visited. Brady seemed timid, sure, but he wasn’t- I mean, he wasn’t physically-”

“How about mentally? Have you thought about the long-term effects this could have on him? Abuse survivors typically suffer for years, if not their whole lifetime. I would know. Do any of you even care?” Adam was raising his voice now, but all it took was a slight whimper from Brady to bring him back down. He took one of the toddler’s hands in his, rubbing his thumb across the back of it to offer some comfort as he spat out his next words as calmly as he could, “I want to know what happened in full detail. Take a seat, Margaret. You’re gonna tell me the whole story, and then you’re going to have Brady’s case transferred to someone else, someone who will see to it that this never happens again.” 

Looking thoroughly chastised, Margaret went into the story. According to the authorities, a neighbor called 911 after hearing what sounded like a child’s screaming coming from next door. The neighbor then hung up, went over to the house and knocked until a frazzled Mellissa answered the door. Mellissa had scratches on her arms, as well as a fresh set of track marks as the police would later find, and the woman escorted her to the street to wait for the police. The neighbor then bravely went back into the house and managed to distract Marcus, who had been attacked the terrified little boy in a drunken fit, until the police arrived and took Brady to the hospital. Marcus and Mellissa were currently waiting for bail at the Henrietta Police Station. 

“Fucking despicable sack of shit…” Ronan muttered angrily under his breath. “He should count his lucky goddamn stars that it wasn’t me who came knocking”

Adam felt similarly, but kept his anger clamped down. He didn’t want to lose his cool. He had Brady now. If he sat and thought too deeply about a drunken man hitting his child, he feared he would never be able to calm down again. The thought brought back memories of another drunken man who enjoyed hitting his child. He had never wanted that for Brady. He’d actively tried to protect him from it. What good did it do? 

“I want to meet the neighbor,” Ronan said quietly, smoothing a stray curl away from Brady’s face. The toddler had dozed off a few minutes ago and was due to wake in a few more if he was continuing with his restless sleeping pattern. Even in sleep, his face didn’t relax. It was pinched and worried, a foreign expression for the child who was typically angelic in sleep. “I want to thank her.”

“Me too,” Adam agreed, sharing a look with Ronan. “Is there any way we could repay her?”

“She has asked for her privacy but told us if this goes to court, she’ll testify,” Margaret reported. 

“If? What do you mean ‘if’ this goes to court?” Adam asked, feeling his temper boiling just under the surface again. 

“Well, since Mellissa didn’t technically touch Brady-”

“Oh, fuck that,” Ronan gave a little curt laugh before gently transferring Brady into Adam’s arms without waking the child. “I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?” Adam asked, not particularly wanting to be left alone with Margaret. 

“To call Declan. He’ll know how to sort this shit out. And…I want him to be here. You know, for the legal shit,” Ronan shrugged, pulling his cellphone from his back pocket. He shot Margaret a warning look before leaving, as if to warn her against messing with his family again. 

They sat in silence for a few moments, the atmosphere in the room turning tense. Adam looked down to where Brady was huddled against his chest, his little fist twisted in his t-shirt. He laid a kiss on his unbruised cheek, then his temple and finally the crown of his head, feeling soft curls tickle his nose. Brady had obviously not been bathed in a long time, judging by the strange stench of his greasy curls, but there was still a hint of something familiar there. Adam held on to that and thought about the long road back to normalcy that waited for them outside of this hospital.

“I want you to know that I’m sorry,” Margaret said quietly, staring down at her shoes. “Before I pass on his case, I’m going to do what I can to cut Brady’s ties with Mellissa. I was wrong to leave him there. I knew something wasn’t right.”

“I was wrong to have let you take him in the first place,” Adam shrugged, still not tearing his glance from the sleeping boy in his arms. “He’s my child, Margaret. No matter what the paperwork says, he is mine. Seeing him like this…it makes me sick, that someone could do this to him. You know Brady, he’s…bright. Who could want to hurt him?”

“I don’t know. I can’t fathom it, either. When I got the phone call-”

“Don’t,” Adam warned. “You don’t get to tell me how terrified you were. Ronan went almost triple the speed limit getting over here. I had to talk myself down from a panic attack. You don’t know terror until you get a call from your colleague saying your son is hurt. Your agency didn’t even call us. In what world is that okay?”

“It’s not,” Margaret sighed, running a hand through her blonde hair. “But I care for Brady, too, and I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s true. I care for all of the kids on my watch and I feel horrible for what happened. I’m not going to make a fuss about transferring his case, but I don’t think he should have a case. I printed these before I came. I thought you might want to hold onto them.”

Margaret stood from her seat, holding a stack of papers out toward Adam. With his free hand, he took the stack from her, glancing at them quickly before flicking his gaze back up to Margaret.

“What are these?” Adam asked. 

“It’s the necessary paperwork to begin the adoption process,” Margaret said. “I have a good feeling that Mellissa will formally lose her parental rights when the judge hears Brady’s story. Anyone with eyes and half a brain can see who his real parents are. After that, it will only make sense. I know you aren’t happy with me, but that doesn’t change how I feel about the three of you. I love you guys, especially when you’re together. You’ve made a beautiful family. You can finally solidify that. You can make him a Lynch, for good.”

Adam stared up at Margaret, looking for any sign of insincerity. When he found none, he set the papers down and offered her a small smile, which was all he could give to her at the moment. “Thank you,” he said.

Margaret seemed to accept what he gave her and began to gather her things. She slipped her messenger bag over her shoulder and walked over to Adam. Hesitantly, as if she were expecting Adam to slap it away, she laid a hand on Brady’s head. Adam figured she deserved that, at least. It was true, she did love Brady and always had. He knew she was saying goodbye for Brady’s own good and in that moment, he couldn’t deny her that. He knew what it was like to say goodbye to the toddler in his arms. It was like watching the sun go down for the last time, looking on as the light faded from your life. 

“Goodbye, Margaret,” Adam said. The woman looked down at him, a small, sad smile gracing her face. She looked like she had more to say, but didn’t instead, she just said, “Goodbye, Adam,” and walked out of their lives. 

****************************************************************************************************************************************

Adam and Ronan were sometimes distressed by their family. The Lynch brothers, of course, had always had a complicated relationship and while they were overcoming their differences, they still grated on each other’s nerves. While Gansey, Blue and Henry had always felt like more than family, the pure fact that the five of them all knew everything about each other and were constantly trying to learn more caused multiple fights and a slight, pestering animosity amongst them as they grew older. Don’t misunderstand, they loved all of them to death, but sometimes…it was nice to just be the three of them. This was not one of those times. 

When Adam got Doris at the front desk to let their family come up to see Brady, he expected only Declan and maybe Matthew. What he found was all of them, storming down the hallway with Declan Lynch, a prince in his own right and Gansey, their king, leading the charge. He almost cried when he saw them. Once again, their family had come together to pick up the broken pieces that were too immense for Ronan and Adam to take care of themselves. He felt so known in that moment. Once, Adam had thought that a family was not something he would ever truly have. Looking at these people, coming to their rescue, made Adam want to laugh at that thought. They weren’t blood, not to him, but they were bonded at the core. They were bonded to his child. 

“Jesus Christ,” Gansey cursed as Brady’s face came into view. Blue gasped from behind him, pushing ahead of them to get to the child. Maybe it was the speed at which her little body rocketed toward them or the fact that he was exhausted, or maybe it was neither, but everyone took a surprised breath when Brady flinched away from Blue’s touch, retreating into Ronan’s shoulder. Blue stared, shocked, as Brady began to cry. Dr. Myers was one thing, but Blue had been around since Brady was a baby. He had never known a life without her. She was his babysitter, his art teacher, his friend and at times, a third parent. He had always willingly leapt into her arms without hesitation. It was this that made Ronan and Adam realize the extent of Brady’s trauma. 

“Shhh…” Ronan hushed Brady, rubbing soothing circles into his back. “It’s just Blue, baby…”

“Blue,” Adam said, taking her hand in his. She looked hurt and he wanted to soothe her, but he didn’t quite know how. “He’s just scared. It’s aftermath of abuse, not you.”

“I know. I’m stupid, I shouldn’t have…” Blue couldn’t seem to finish her sentence, still looking dazed at the altercation. Gansey pulled her to his chest in order to give her comfort, but he looked just as shocked at the rest of them. 

They spent the next few minutes relaying information to their family, watching as their expression turned from relieved, to angered, to fretful. Declan was frantically typing away into his Blackberry the entire time. Ronan had called him to see if there was anything that could be done and Declan had proceeded to call every judge, social worker and lawyer friend he had. Matthew had texted Ronan on their way over to let him know that Declan had not put down his phone the entire drive over. Adam and Declan were never particularly close, aside from one drunken night in a karaoke bar when Adam turned twenty-one, but he was suddenly very thankful for his brother-in-law and his tendency to get shit done, especially when it was for the benefit of his brothers. 

“I called a judge friend of mine who works on family-related cases in Henrietta. He was out, but his secretary is an ex of mine and she’ll pass the message along. I’ve also called Alec Jameson, he’s the most talented lawyer I know. He said he’ll be happy to take Brady’s case,” Declan reported, looking straight to Ronan the entire time. 

“No,” Ronan said immediately. Declan rolled his big blue eyes at Ronan’s stubbornness, throwing his phone on the unused bed in frustration.

“Ronan, don’t be difficult. He’s great-”

“I want you.” Ronan said sternly, bouncing Brady lightly as the little boy started to stir from his latest nap. “I don’t want a stranger handling this. You were top of your class. I want you to take this on, if you can. I trust you more than those corporate assholes, anyway.”

Declan looked shell-shocked. He tried to rain his face into a look of composure but his watery eyes gave him away. Matthew was absolutely beaming at the exchange. Declan nodded stiffly, saying quietly, “Of course, Ronan. Whatever you want.”

“So…” Henry started, looking deflated in his current state. They had apparently rolled out of bed to come here, and Henry was clad only in a pair of Gansey’s pajamas and a stylish jean jacket, his hair flat against his skull. “What now?”

Ronan and Adam looked at each other, and then at the child sleeping in Ronan’s arms. It was time to do what they had been aching to do for months. “Now,” Adam said, “we take our baby home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, lets all take a deep breath. They're together. Things can only go up from here. Right?
> 
> So, as for the future of this story, I want to know what you guys want to see happen. At this point, I could do 1 of 3 things:  
> 1\. I could follow this story to the end of Brady's trial and leave it all nice and pretty for you guys. 
> 
> 2\. We could follow the Lynch-Parrish family as the navigate through life in a series of super fluffy chapters. 
> 
> 3\. I could do both, making this story part of a series. This story would end with the trial and I would add a work that is made up of fluffy drabbles surrounding Brady, Adam, Ronan and the gang. 
> 
> I'm leaning towards the last one, because I think it would flow better, but I want your feedback! Leave me comments!


	7. The Not-Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam, Ronan and Brady are dealing with things the best they can. They're not okay, and that is fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, I'm late to update. I'm sorry! I hope you forgive me. Here's some fluff to win you all back. Leave me some comments!
> 
> Love,  
> Mads

Ronan woke up to the feeling of little hands shaking his bicep and the uncomfortable realization that the sheets beneath him were drenched in something that carried an unpleasant stench.

“Papa,” Brady’s small voice cut through the dark as Ronan blinked himself into full consciousness. Brady was leaning over him, rubbing tears out of his eyes. Ronan ran a comforting hand through his mess of curls, fighting back a fatigued sigh. 

“What’s wrong, baby?” Ronan whispered sleepily, trying to let Adam, who was still sleeping like the dead on the other side of Brady, get a few more moments of sleep before he was shaken awake at-Ronan glanced at the clock on his bedside table and had to try very hard not to groan- 3:30 in the morning. “Did you have another accident?”

The shame that flooded Brady’s face was visible even in the darkness and it hurt Ronan’s heart. It had been a week since they brought him back home and he still refused to sleep alone in his room. That was fine with Adam and Ronan, it made them feel better to have him close right now. The only problem was the fact that every night for the past week, Brady woke from a nightmare in wet underwear and the washer had seen their bedsheets seven times that week alone. The family walked through the daytime like zombies, fighting off exhaustion from the absence of a full night’s sleep. Ronan didn’t care too much about that. What he cared about more was the nightmares that currently had his two-year-old trembling so violently it was hard to believe he hadn’t woken Adam with the sheer force of it. 

“Sorry, Papa,” Brady sniffed miserably. 

“It’s alright, love,” Ronan said, pulling the boy to his chest, wetness be damned. Ronan pressed a soft kiss to the toddler’s cheek. “It’s not your fault. Wanna get out of these wet clothes?”

Ronan felt Brady nod against his neck and willed himself into action. He forced his eyes all the way open, letting them adjust to the dimness of the room as he sat up, still holding Brady. He could just make out Adam’s elegant silhouette in the moonlight, which would have been romantic if they weren’t drenched in pee. Gently, Ronan shook Adam awake, which wasn’t hard to do. The moment Ronan laid a hand on Adam’s back, the man had shot up, already alert and looking for trouble. When he became fully alert, found that Brady and Ronan were both unharmed and was made aware of the wetness beneath him, he gave Brady as soft, sad smile. “Another nightmare, sugar?” 

Brady was very clearly suffering from rough nightmares, but he wouldn’t talk about them even with his fathers. Adam had tried, lord almighty, did he try, but the child was belligerent in his silence on the matter. So, Adam and Ronan did what they could to comfort him. They let him sleep nestled between them every night. They didn’t make a big fuss about the bed-wetting. They told him happy stories of magical forests and dream things before he went to bed to try and influence his dreams. When that didn’t work, they changed the sheets and soothed him back into a fitful rest and tried again the next night. They were all coping, and as always, they were doing it together.  
It was okay. Everything was okay. They were fine.

Adam and Ronan were becoming quite efficient at their three a.m. routine. Adam took Brady by the hand and led him back to the nursery to change into dry clothes while Ronan stripped the bed, shoved the soiled sheets in the dryer and put new ones on the king-sized bed. Then, Adam and Ronan would change their own clothes while Brady watched 90’s sitcom re-runs from the bed for a few minutes. When everyone was dry, they would try in vain to get the little boy to talk about the nightmares. When that didn’t work, Ronan would lull his boys back to sleep with an old Irish lullaby that Aurora used to sing when he woke up with something horrifying in his hands or scratches on his cheek. Then, when both Brady and Adam were snoring softly, Ronan would try and fail to fall back asleep, and so his day would begin promptly at 3:30 with the sight of his sleeping husband and child. In hindsight, there were worse ways to wake up. 

But if Ronan was being honest, he was exhausted. But he was okay. Everything was okay. He was fine.

“You look like death,” Henry chirped happily as he seated himself at Ronan’s kitchen table. Ronan glared, hoping the dark circles underneath his violently blue eyes were dark enough to look menacing. He doubted the toddler clinging to him helped with that, but whatever. 

“Thanks, Cheng, nice to see you too,” Ronan growled, pouring his fifth cup of coffee and pointedly ignore the look Gansey was giving him. Of course, that only lasted so long. He wasn’t in a civil mood. “Just come out and say it, Dick. I know you want to.” 

“I’m just worried about you, Ronan,” Gansey admitted, having the good graces to look chastened as he sipped his tea. “Are the N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E-S not getting any better?”

“I F-U-C-K-I-N-G wish,” Ronan snorted, sitting Brady in his highchair and placing a bowl of oatmeal in front of him. Brady used one hand to spoon the oatmeal into his mouth messily and took Ronan’s hand in the other. Brady had this thing with physical touch when it came to Adam and Ronan ever since they brought him home. He constantly had to be touching them, as if to make sure they were still there, that they weren’t going to leave him again. It sent a pang of shame echoing through Ronan’s chest. He had failed his kid. Big time. “Parrish says nightmares are common for abuse survivors, and I guess that’s true because I can remember when Adam used to get them really bad. It’s just…he’s so young. He shouldn’t have to deal with these things. He should never have had to-...” 

Ronan was cut off in the middle of his self-depreciating rant by Gansey’s firm hand squeezing his shoulder. Ronan let out a long, slow breath. After all these years, nobody could calm a Lynch quite like Gansey could. Beside him, Brady squeezed his hand as hard as he could. 

“S’okay Papa,” Brady whispered, gifting Ronan with a little smile, the first he had seen since he left all those months ago. Ronan looked at the little boy and was suddenly overcome with a rush of affection for him. He was still battered, having recovered only slightly from his injuries in the past week, and yet the child was offering Ronan comfort. In Ronan’s opinion, he had Ronan’s eyes and wild nature, but his heart was all Adam Parrish. 

“Come here, little man,” Ronan grinned, plucking Brady from his highchair and squeezing him tightly against his chest. He wanted to keep him there and protect him from nightmares and neglectful mothers and terrible, abusive men. 

No, they were okay. Everything was okay. They were fine. Ronan just needed to not think about the negatives and focus on the fact that Brady was home. 

“Things will get better, Ronan,” Gansey said, smiling at the father-son pair. “You just have to take things one step at a time. We’re all here for you, whenever you need us.”

“Yeah, totally,” Henry piped up. “But if you could refrain from needing us at the crack of dawn from now on, that would be awesome.”

“Henry,” Gansey sighed. “It’s eleven in the morning. That hardly counts as the crack of dawn.”

“It’s early enough and I refuse to retract my statement,” Henry huffed piously, spooning Frosted Flakes into his mouth with vigor. 

“Sorry, Cheng,” Ronan said. “I just have to get some things done down at the barn. Brady-bug, do you think you could do Papa a solid and stay with Uncle Henry and Uncle Gansey?”

Brady turned in Ronan’s arms to survey his uncles with wariness. He still hadn’t quite warmed up to anyone other than Adam and Ronan, but they were working on it. Gansey and Henry grinned goofily at the toddler, not quite realizing how ridiculous they looked, and Brady cast a glance at his father with a look of indignation, as if he were wondering if Ronan was seriously considering leaving him with the two beaming idiots before him. 

“Tell you what,” Ronan whispered conspiratorially to the child. “I’ll put on Oliver & Company and you can ignore them completely.” 

Gansey and Henry balked at the suggestion, but Brady nodded in acceptance, so Ronan was counting his victories and getting the hell out of there while he could. 

Ronan put on the movie, as he said he would, and set Brady up on the couch with apple juice and his teddy. Brady fussed a little when Ronan gently tried to pry himself from his grasp. So, while Brady was engrossed in the film, he beckoned Gansey over to sit in his place and slipped his hand from Brady’s, quickly placing Gansey’s hand where his once was. The toddler paid no attention to them, training his eyes on the singing animals on the screen. 

Ronan had only been working in the barn for about an hour when his phone began to ring from his pocket. He rolled his eyes violently as he tugged the device from his pocket. What could have gone wrong with Gansey, Henry and Brady in such a short amount of time?

Ronan was shocked to see that it wasn’t Gansey’ name on the caller ID, but Adam’s, a picture of him and Brady laughing at each other flashing across the screen. Adam had a strict no contact policy when he was working, excluding emergencies. Ronan felt his pulse quicken as he dragged his thumb across the screen and pressed the phone to his ear. 

“Adam?”

“Ronan,” Adam choked out. Ronan’s stomach dropped at the sound of his voice. After years of loving Adam Parrish, he had become very skilled at recognizing his many moods and states-of-mind in a matter of seconds. He had become especially good at recognizing anxiety attacks over the phone during Adam’s college years. “I can’t- I just-”

“Breathe, Adam. In and out,” Ronan said. He heard Adam huff a few deep breaths on the other line and Ronan waited until his breathing wasn’t the shallow, hurried breaths they were before. When Adam had calmed a bit, Ronan pressed for information. “What’s up, love? Did something happen?”

“I don’t know, I just-…Ronan, I know it’s a lot to ask but could you bring Brady by?” Adam pleaded, his voice breaking anxiously. “I just need to see him and make sure he’s okay.”

“Of course,” Ronan agreed, already thinking of all the work he’d be sacrificing and all the time he’d have to find for it tomorrow. That didn’t matter. If Adam needed to see Brady to keep calm, Ronan would give up his agenda. He’d haul Brady to the ends of the earth for him if he had to. Adam would do the same for him. “We’ll be there soon.”

Ronan came back into the house a few minutes later and three sets of eyes rose to meet him. Brady seemed to have just realized it wasn’t Ronan who had been holding his hand this whole time, because he detached himself from Gansey and came waddling over to press himself against Ronan’s knees.

“Put your shoes on, buddy,” Ronan said, wiping his brow. “We’re going to see Daddy.”

The toddler pulled Ronan over to the shoe rack and began to shove his feet into his sneakers. He held them up for Ronan to tie and the man’s fingers shook as they looped the laces together. Ronan knew a crash was coming, but he was going to fight it with everything in him. He was okay. Everything was okay. It was fine. 

It had to be. 

Singer Falls Hospital was calmer than it had been the previous week, or maybe it was Ronan who felt calmer as he walked hand-in-hand with Brady through the sterile halls. He was searching for the staff rest-room. Adam was on holed up in there on his break and had asked Ronan to bring Brady there so they could have privacy. He found the dark room and knocked twice. He had barely brought his knuckles down on the wood for the second time before the door was opening, revealing a tear-stained Adam, who immediately dropped to his knees and pulled Brady to him.

“Daddy!” Brady chirped, nestling against Adam. Ronan resisted rolling his eyes fondly. Brady was a Daddy’s boy, through and through. 

“Hi, baby,” Adam sighed, a beautiful, relieved smile breaking out across his face as he buried his nose in Brady’s curls. “I missed you.” 

Ronan closed the door behind him, running a hand across his face. He could see a bed in the far corner and he could feel himself being pulled towards it. He was fine. He was fine. He was-

“Are you okay?” Adam asked, scooping Brady into his arms and standing to face Ronan. Adam’s eyebrows furrowed as he took in Ronan’s dark, bloodshot eyes and protruding forehead vein. Ronan tried to plaster an unaffected smile across his face, but it was hopeless. He couldn’t fool Adam. “You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“I’m fine,” Ronan said, because lying by omission was kind of his thing. Adam studied him for a moment before cupping his cheek and running a gentle thumb under Ronan’s dark eyes. 

“It’s okay to not be fine,” Adam whispered, leaning into Ronan. Ronan’s hands came up to rest on Adam’s waist instinctively, trapping Brady between them. Adam rested his forehead against Ronan’s chest and sighed, “I’m starting to think we aren’t going to be fine for a while, and that is okay. We’ll be not-fine together.”

Ronan let out a long breath he hadn’t known he was holding and relaxed into Adam’s touch. They stood there for a few more minutes, just being in each other’s orbit. It helped more than Ronan thought it would. Then, Adam pulled back and bounced Brady in his arms, grinning slyly at the toddler. 

“What do you say you come help Daddy work today, sunshine?” Adam said to Brady, nuzzling his cheek happily. “Papa needs a nap.”

“Are you serious?” Ronan asked warily. He wasn’t sure Adam was allowed to just have a toddler following him around a hospital ward, but the man just winked at him. 

“Go home, honey. Sleep. You look like the dead,” Adam chuckled. 

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Because it’s true,” Adam laughed, poking Ronan playfully in the chest. “Right Brady-bug?”

“Right!”

Ronan rolled his eyes fondly at the two of them before kissing Brady lightly on the forehead and Adam soundly on the lips. Before he left, he ducked down to whisper in Adam’s ear, “How will I repay you for this?”

“I can think of a few ways,” Adam purred. Before Ronan could defile his husband in front of their baby, Adam pushed him toward the door lightly, a smug smirk stretching across his lips. “Now, go. Brady and I have important doctor’s business to attend to.”

Ronan didn’t need to be told twice. His feet were pulling him towards his car, towards the barns, towards his bed. Not for the first time that day, he thanked his lucky stars for Adam fucking Parrish. 

*******************************************************************************************************************************************

The first meltdown came, of course, in the most public of places: Henrietta’s very own Fresh Eagle supermarket. 

In hindsight, Ronan should have known it was coming. The week had passed without any incident, like the calm before the storm, but Brady had become almost completely silent and quietly cranky. Ronan’s instinct was to brush it off, to shoo the child into bed for an extra nap once or twice, to definitely not think about the tantrum that was brewing just under the surface for his two-year-old. 

That was a mistake. 

It started with the cart. Or, rather, Ronan’s inability to hold onto Brady, who was in the cart, with one hand and shop with the other. Every time Ronan went to grab something off a shelf, Brady started to whine. Ronan tried to think of a solution for this by offering his arms to Brady, but the child didn’t want to be held. It was almost as if the dam was already breaking, and the child wanted to just crack it open and let the water pour. 

“Brady, come on, buddy,” Ronan pleaded. “Papa just needs to grab a few things and then-”

“No!” Brady shouted. Ronan winced as people began to stare. They already stared enough when the tall, dark and tattooed man went anywhere with the angelic looking toddler. Now, though, he was starting to see that familiar look of ‘should we call the police, is that really his child?’ flickering in the eyes of the soccer moms and store employees around him. 

“Brady, be good for Papa,” Ronan begged in a last ditch effort to avoid the disaster. “How about I let you down and you can push the cart?”

“No!” Brady screamed, picking up the nearest item to him, a loaf of bread, and tossing it out of the cart. He seemed to like this game, because he began to toss everything he could get his hands on. “No Push! No Good! No Papa!”

Ronan’s patience fell away in one single instance. He grabbed Brady’s small hands in his bigger ones, ignoring the fight the toddler put up, and looked him in the eye. “Brady James Moore, stop this right now.”

“No! Let go, Papa! Let go!” And when Ronan did not let go, Brady opened his mouth and released the most unholy of cries. Everyone in the store must have been looking by now, but Ronan couldn’t bring himself to care. He was focused on the look of pure frustration on his child’s face. 

Ronan pulled Brady from the cart in one swift movement and abandoned his groceries in the aisle, stomping towards the exit with a wailing kid wiggling in his arms. Once they were safely out of the grocery store, Ronan put Brady on the ground and held him still. This kid was a raging ocean of emotions, had been since he came home, and he needed to let it out. He had an idea as to how that could happen. 

“Brady,” Ronan said over the crying. “Scream with me.”

That made the tears subsided as the child reared back, his face full of confusion. “What?”

“Come on, scream. Like this,” Ronan said, letting out a good, hearty scream. Now people were really looking, but Ronan didn’t care. Brady needed this. “Now it’s your turn. Let it out, kiddo.”

Warily, Brady screamed back. It was weak and cautious, and Ronan wasn’t having it. “Is that all you’ve got? Come on, really let go. Like Papa.”

They stood there, hunched together in the Fresh Eagle parking lot, screaming in each other’s faces like to apples from the same crazy tree. Tears started to leak from Brady’s eyes, but Ronan could tell it wasn’t pained tears but tears of relief. Soon, the tears melted away and in its place came laughter. That bright Brady smile made its debut again and Ronan couldn’t help but squeeze the child in a warm hug. They were getting through this, slowly but surely. 

“Feel better, love?” Ronan asked. 

“Better, Papa,” Brady giggled. 

“Good boy,” Ronan grinned, playfully tugging on a loose curl. “Now, let’s go. We’ve got to go to the grocery store across town after that meltdown. You’ve got my gift for rebellion, don’t you, kid?”

Ronan’s joke was rewarded with a cute childlike giggle as Brady slipped his small hand into Ronan’s. The walked toward the BMW quickly, so as to avoid any cops that might be on their way after the scene they just made. As Ronan clicked Brady into his carseat, the little boy put his little hand on his father’s cheek and pulled him down to his level, pecking the man softly on the nose. “Brady love Papa,” the toddler smiled fondly, and Ronan couldn’t help but melt. 

Maybe they weren’t okay. Maybe they’d never be okay again. But maybe Adam was right in his philosophy: they were not-okay together. That was all that mattered. 

**********************************************************************************************************************************

Declan came over that Sunday to prep them to meet the brave neighbor who saved Brady that night. They ate dinner while Declan talked business. Brady was half-asleep as shoved spaghetti in his mouth by the handful. It was one of those days. Everyone at the table, aside from Declan, was dead on their feet. It had been the world’s longest weekend, with check-ups for Brady and farm work for Ronan and paperwork for Adam. They were barely listening to Declan as she talked. 

“Her name is Elisabeth Mills. She’s about fifty-five and very quiet, but seems to be willing to cooperate. She should open up to you, Adam. She’s not wealthy,” Declan rambled, not paying attention to the words flowing from his mouth.

“I’m going to forget you said that,” Adam sighed, absently twirling his spaghetti. 

“I’m not,” Ronan said. “I’m going to curse you out for it when the tyke goes to bed.”

“It might already be time for that,” Adam observed, pointing with his fork at the toddler, who was now face-down in spaghetti. Ronan and Adam looked at each other, silently debating whether they should laugh or cry, and settled for the former. Ronan plucked the messy toddler from his highchair and roused him from his sleep. The toddler whined crankily, rubbing his eyes with sauce-cover fists.

“You’ve gotta take a bath before bed, spaghetti monster,” Ronan chuckled, trailing up the stairs already. “Say goodnight to Uncle Dec.”

“Night-night, Uncle Dec,” The child groaned, laying his head against Ronan’s shoulder and offering Declan a little wave.

“Night, Brady!” Declan called after them. 

Adam and Declan washed and dried the dishes in comfortable, exhausted silence for a few moments, letting the sound of the running water, the chirping of the summer crickets and the low hum of Ronan’s distant voice be their soundtrack. Then, as if he couldn’t contain it anymore, Declan spoke up. 

“I’m sorry if I offended you, before…I just thout-”

“Declan, it’s okay. Ronan is just messing with you,” Adam said, offering his brother-in-law a small smile. Once upon a time, Declan Lynch struggled to see why Ronan fell so deeply in love with Adam Parrish. Now, it wasn’t much of a mystery to him. Adam was warm and soft in the barns. He treated the people he loved so well, like he was afraid to fuck up. Declan loved Adam like a brother now. He was family. “Do you think we’ll get Brady?”

“No doubt in my mind,” Declan answered immediately. 

“Really?” Adam asked skeptically, an edge of hope in his voice. “You’re not just saying that because we’re family?”

“Lynches don’t lie,” is all Declan said as he turned to put a stack of dinner dishes in the cabinet. He nearly fell over with shock as he turned back to be met by Adam Parrish, wrapping his arms around Declan in a tight hug. 

“Thank you,” Adam whispered, tears choking his voice. Declan took a moment to find his voice, and even when he did, it wavered. 

“Don’t mention it, Adam,” Declan said, shrugging off the affection in true Lynch fashion. “You still have to charm Elisabeth Mills, so don’t thank me yet. She’s the key to winning this case.”

So, of course, when Monday rolled around, Adam found himself stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, already running five minutes late. Declan was going to kill him. 

“Hey Dec, I’m on my way,” Adam rambled into his phone, leaving Declan his fifth apologetic message. “I should be there really soon. Traffic is killing me. I’m sorry. Keep her busy!”

Adam was sweating as he entered the Henrietta police station. He was twenty minutes late by that point and all of his hope of this woman helping him get Brady back had flown out the window as he sped down the highway. He was more nervous than he had ever been as an officer led him to the interrogation room Declan had secured. He checked himself before he went in, putting on his most award-winning smile and praying to whatever God Ronan loved so much that this went well. Then, with shaky hands, he opened the door.

“I am so, so sorry I’m late,” Adam said, letting his southern drawl ooze from his mouth. Maybe it would charm the women, who wasn’t yet facing him. “I swear traffic is worse in Henrietta. I’m Adam-”

And then the woman turned, her familiar ocean-blue eyes meeting his, and his blood froze in his veins. 

“Mama?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHHHHHH! WHAT?! That just happened. Leave me comments and let me know what you think!


	8. Trick Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and his mother have a heart to heart and the trial begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I'm sorry I've been slow to update! This is kind of a filler chapter, but it's got 2000 more words than the last two chapters have had so at least theres that! Please read the notes at the end of the chapter and leave me some comments!
> 
> Love,  
> Mads

Adam had not seen his father in eleven years, and really, it was for the best. Adam had tried to offer his father an olive branch just before he left for college. He felt like it was his duty to be the bigger man, as he had always truly been. As he had suspected, Robert Parrish had no interest in olive branches or Harvard or his bisexual son. He had never given a damn about Adam. He was more of a punching bag than a son to him. Adam wasn’t hurt by this loss. In a way, he was relieved to be rid of Robert. 

Adam’s relationship with Beth Parrish, on the other hand, was a bit more complicated. 

For a few years, Beth had tried, against her husband’s wishes, to belatedly do right by her son. They tentatively kept in touch while he went to college, writing secretive letters and talking quietly into the phone receivers after their significant others had passed out. Adam sent her newspaper clippings hailing his achievements at Harvard and mailed her every paper he ever wrote. For her part, Beth didn’t have much to give to her son besides her support in his education. She had always quietly believed in Adam’s brilliant mind. She was going to attend his college graduation despite Robert Parrish’s insistence that she stay away from their ungrateful son. She had quietly confided in Adam that she planned to leave Robert when she could gather some money, and he began to send her whatever cash he could scrape together at the end of the month. They were doing well, and for a little while, Adam had really thought his mother could be a part of his life. 

Then Adam called to invite her to his small, intimate wedding one summer afternoon and their ties were cut with one blowout fight and a disconnected phone call that left Adam reeling. Beth Parrish had never disguised her disdain for Ronan Lynch. She recognized a familiar violence in him the day he beat her husband half to death on her front porch, and she didn’t want that for her son. She had always thought Adam would come to his senses about him, find some nice girl to marry instead and have some kids. In Beth’s eyes, Adam was too good for Ronan Lynch. 

“Mama, you don’t know him like I do,” Adam had said with barely disguised impatience that fateful day.

“I don’t want to know him,” Beth had said. “He’s dangerous.”

“He’s wonderful and I’m in love with him,” Adam had hissed protectively, clutching the phone so hard he thought it might snap in his hand. “I’m marrying him whether you like it or not. So, you can either get over it and come support your only son on his wedding day or maybe we just shouldn’t talk anymore.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Beth had snapped. Then, before she could take it back, before she could beg her son not the leave her alone, a beeping in her ear told her that her Adam had disconnected himself from her. Adam hadn’t seen or heard from Beth Parrish since that day.

Until now. 

The air seemed to seep out of the room in an instant as the two stared at each other in shocked silence. The room was thick with a tension so palpable you could hold it in your hands. So many thoughts were rushing through Adam’s mind, but he couldn’t pick which one to voice first, so Declan voiced one for him. 

“Holy fucking shit,” the Lynch brother breathed, staring at the showdown with eyes blown wide and a face as pale as a ghost. “Ronan is going to kill me for this.”

The sound of Ronan’s name was like a splash of cold water for both of them. They tore their eyes from each other to look at the eldest Lynch. Adam’s brain slowly began to work as the world began to spin again. He placed a grounding hand on his brother-in-law’s shoulder, worried the man might pass out. You’d think a Lynch would be more adapted to family drama. 

“Declan, can we have the room?” Adam asked quietly, deliberately not looking at his mother. Declan nodded, pulling his Blackberry from his pocket as he stood clumsily from his chair. 

“I’m just gonna… go call…Ronan or…whatever…” Declan mumbled, hurrying from the room. Then, Declan popped his head back in to say, “Adam, if you need me-”

“I know,” Adam assured him, forcing a smile. “Thanks, Dec.”

The sound of the steel door clicking made Adam’s anxiety spike, but he forced himself to keep his head held high. He couldn’t cower, not now. His family was depending on him. 

“So,” Adam started, unsure of what to ask first. He decided to go with simple niceties, just to be safe. “How have you been?”

“Oh…you know,” Beth shrugged. Adam thought he did know as he watched her instinctively pull her sleeves down over her hands to try and hide the bruises on her wrists. “And you? You’re doing okay?”

“Yeah, I am now,” Adam couldn’t help but smile at how good he felt these days, with his family back together. The sight of his smile made a similar one spread across Beth’s face. 

“Are you a doctor yet?” She asked quietly, looking Adam over and trying to memorize everything that had changed about him.

“Yeah. I’m specializing in pediatrics.”

“Are you still…with him?” Beth asked hesitantly. Adam nodded, spinning the smooth metallic ring on his left ring finger absently.

“Yes, Ronan and I are still married,” Adam confirmed. “Eight years next month.”

At this, Beth sucked in a sharp breath. “Has it really been eight years?”

Adam knew she wasn’t talking about his marriage in that moment. Truly, it hadn’t felt like eight years. He never really had time to think about the loss of his mother, other than the night things fell to shit. Adam never allowed himself to cry over it, because he should have known better than to think his mother would be mature enough to be there for him when it mattered, but he spent that night sitting in a pew at Saint Agnes feeling sorry for himself. When Ronan found him, he hadn’t asked Adam to talk about it. He simply plopped down in the pew beside him and pulled Adam into his lap, his large hands running through Adam’s hair soothingly. It was then that Adam felt sure in his decision to cut ties with his mother. If she couldn’t see how beautiful Ronan’s love was then fuck her. Ronan was the home she had never tried to provide for him. There was only one of them he was willing to give up, and so he did. He had never once regretted his choice, and yet he’d actively tried to avoid thinking about her ever since. 

“I have so many questions,” Adam told her truthfully. 

“I’ll try to have the answers this time,” Beth said, tucking a stray strand of grey hair behind her ear. Adam leaned forward, knitting his fingers together so he would have something to hold onto. He didn’t know if he was ready to hear a first-hand account of what happened to his baby, but he had to know. 

“You haven’t moved from the trailer, have you?” Adam asked. When his question went unanswered, he took it as a resounding yes. “So…my son was living in…”

“The Kennedy’s old trailer. They moved out a few years ago. That girl just bought it about six months ago,” Beth said. Adam’s eyes fluttered closed. It was like something out of his nightmares, Brady living in the filth he grew up in. There was no species that could thrive there, and he had almost let Brady live the rest of his childhood there. He felt sick. 

“Dad doesn’t know about this, does he?” Adam’s next question flew out of his mouth and for a moment, Beth looked taken aback. Then, she shook her head, picking absently at her fingernails as she spoke. 

“He wasn’t home that night. I didn’t want him to know. That why I used my maiden name in the police report. He would kill me if he knew.”

“Then why did you do it?” Adam asked, finding it suddenly hard to breathe. 

“I…” Beth sighed, casting her eyes downward. “I wanted to do one good thing. I didn’t know he was yours. I just-…I heard him screaming. And the sound was so…helpless. It reminded me of the way you used to sound, when you were real tiny. I couldn’t stand still anymore.”

“Why not?” Adam asked. 

“I messed up, Adam. I didn’t fight for you, and I live with that every day. I thought if I could just…help him...maybe I could feel a little better at the end of the day. Maybe it would be like I was finally doing right by you.”

Adam stared at his mother, feeling a lump rising in his throat. He thought of every night she let Robert Parrish pound him into the cold tile floor. He thought of every bruise he had to hide, every empty look she gave him, every insult burned into his brain that she never refuted and suddenly…none of it mattered. He would never fully recover from the abuse his parents inflicted on him and he would never fully forgive her for staying silent. However, his little boy was at home right now, safe in Ronan’s arms and later he would get to go home to him. She did that for him. She gave him back his son.

Beth looked up, startled, when she felt her son’s hand curl around her own. She was met with watery blue eyes that perfectly reflected her own. When he spoke, it was softer than she deserved, “I’ll never really get over my childhood, and you’re a big part of that. I have been so angry with you for so long. I can’t forget what happened, Mama,” Adam said. Beth ducked her head in well-deserved shame, but Adam pressed on. “But…when you went into that trailer and stood between my little boy and that horrible man, you didn’t just do right by me. You saved my life. You saved my son. He is everything to me and Ronan. Our world revolves around him and you brought him back to us. So…I guess what I’m saying is you did really good, Mama. Thank you.”

Beth sniffed back tears, aggressively wiping her watery eyes in an attempt to look unaffected. It was her favorite defense mechanism. Adam found himself blinking back traitorous tears. Beth let out a little laugh, squeezing Adam’s hand tighter as she said, “Tell me about your boy, Adam. Tell me the good things.”

“His name’s Brady. He’s perfect,” Adam said, feeling a little bizarre as he gushed about his kid to his estranged mother. He pulled his cellphone from his pocket, ignoring the dozens of texts from Ronan and going straight to his photos. He flipped through a few of them, holding the phone up for her to see. “We’ve had him since he was a baby. He’s so bright.”

“So were you,” Beth smiled, touching Brady’s deep dimples through the screen. “Do you think he’ll follow in your footsteps? Be real smart, go to school, be doctor?”

“He’ll be whatever he wants to be,” Adam said. “I’m going to make sure of that.”

A knock sounded front the door and then Declan was there, peeking his head in like he was afraid he would walk in on Adam and his mother cat fighting which, now that Adam thought about it, had been a distinct possibility. 

“Sorry to bother you, but I’m just wondering if we’ve come to any decisions about the trail?” Declan asked, sounding more hesitant than Adam had ever heard him sound. Adam looked to Beth, a hopeful look in his bright blue eyes, and how could she say no?

“I’ll testify,” Beth said firmly and Adam was proud of the strength in her voice. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to help.”

“Excellent,” Declan sighed in relief. “Also, Adam, Ronan has asked me to inform you that if you don’t give him an update soon, he’s coming down here to rescue you. I think he’s got you on an actual timer.”

Adam rolled his eyes fondly, turning back to his mother. “I have to head home but…thank you, Mama. For everything.”

“Don’t thank me,” Beth said. “I should have done this twenty-five years ago.”

“Mama, if you…still need to get away,” Adam said, casting a pointed glanced at her bruised wrists. “I’ve got money now. I can find you a place and then maybe…I don’t know. Brady doesn’t have any grandparents. Maybe we could get lunch or something. All of us.”

Tears glistened in Beth’s eyes as she looked at her son, who had grown so warm in her absence. She desperate for some warmth in her life. “I’d like that very much.”

Adam nodded and then quickly, as if trying to do it before he talked himself out of it, Adam kissed his mother’s cheek. “I’ll call you, Mama.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Beth said and watched as her only son went back to the home she had always wanted for him. For the first time in eight years, Beth Parrish felt warm. 

***************************************************************************************************************************************

“You want me to what?” Adam asked, the color draining from his face completely as he looked at his insane brother-in-law.

“I need you to testify tomorrow,” Declan shrugged, as if Adam speaking in front of a judge and a courtroom full of people was some run-of-the-mill thing Adam did every day. Adam, Brady and the three Lynch brothers were sitting in a booth at Ninos, reviewing the case one last time before the trial kicked off the next day. Declan had sprung this task on Adam just as he was eating the last piece of pizza crust on his plate, watching on with alarm as the man inhaled the food in a moment of surprise, choking slightly as Ronan smacked his hand against his husband’s heaving back. “We already have your mother’s testimony of what happened on the night Brady was taken to the hospital-”

“So why do you need me to testify?” Adam asked, his voice shooting up three octaves. People had begun to look at them strangely, but Adam didn’t care. He couldn’t get up and talk in front of all those people. What did he have to do with it anyway? What information could he possibly possess that Declan found useful?

“I need you to talk about what came after. Brady’s dependency problems, his nightmares, the bed-wetting and the tantrums. Those are all long-term effects of physical and psychological abuse, are they not?” Declan said enthusiastically. Adam stared at his brother like he had spontaneously started sprouting a second head. 

“Then why don’t I testify for him?” Ronan tried to suggest, wrapping an arm around a dazed Adam. Adam sent him a grateful look for his suggestion, but his relief didn’t last long. 

“Ronan, you’re not exactly a skilled speaker,” Declan said, trying to sound soothing and landing on condescending instead. “Adam’s Harvard valedictorian speech was incredible.”

“I threw up four times before I gave that speech and almost passed out,” Adam reminded him lightly, feeling suddenly just as lightheaded just then as he did at his graduation. 

“But you still pulled it off!” Declan shot back encouragingly. Adam ducked his head into Ronan’s shoulder and let out a little muffled scream. “Look, Adam, I guess you don’t have to if you don’t want to. No one has issued a subpoena for your testimony, but…I think you story is important. You’ve been with Brady since the day he was born. You’ve met Mellissa. You were there for the worst of his withdrawals. You have good, valuable input that could mean the difference between losing this case and winning it.”

A silence settled over the table as Adam took in Declan’s words. The more he thought about them, the more he begrudgingly admitted to himself that Declan had a point. If there was anyone who truly knew the full effect of Mellissa’s destruction, it was Adam, who had been there to pick up the pieces for Brady’s sake. 

Adam looked down at his toddler, who was coloring a picture on the back of his paper napkin. It was a endearingly messy drawing of the barns, complete with Oliver the pig, Chainsaw, Brady, Adam and Ronan. His little face was pinched in concentration as he drew Adam and Ronan’s intertwined hands. A wave of affection his him like a truck. He would do anything for Brady. If answering a few questions would mean that Brady would be kept safe from Mellissa’s destruction for the rest of his hands, Adam could do that. He would do that. 

“I’m in,” Adam said, earning a 1000-watt smile from Declan and an incredulous look from a disbelieving Ronan. Adam squeezed his hand under the table lightly, offering him a small, reassuring smile before turning back to Declan. “I want to know what you’re asking me beforehand so I’m not thrown for a loop while I’m on the stand.”

“Deal,” Declan said immediately, turning over his own menu and grabbing a blue crayon from Brady’s set, beginning to write out a long list of questions with impressive speed, his hands flying across the page. Adam felt his heart beginning to riot against him. 

What had he gotten himself into?

******************************************************************************************************************************************

The first day of the trial, everyone gathered at the barns for breakfast without invitation. Gansey and Blue were first to arrive at seven that morning, dressed in their very finest, their arms full of breakfast a-la-Fox Way. Adam almost fainted when he saw Blue Sargent, queen of combat boots and makeshift dresses, wearing a sensible pencil skirt and a green blouse, her hair piled prettily on top of her head and heels so high she could use them as weapons. She looked like Helen Gansey in a way, which made Adam’s skin crawl when Gansey looped his arm around her waist. It was unsettling, to see her so normal-looking, but it was touching that she was trying to dress up for their sake. Matthew came next, holding a bag of bagels and grinning despite the severity of the day, followed by Declan, who was frantically reviewing his opening statement. Then, almost an hour later, Henry Cheng graced them with his presence, looking like a model at 8:30 in the morning. It was unfair to Ronan and Adam, who were still in their pajamas.

They all ate breakfast at the kitchen table, trading jokes and sarcastic comments to try and lighten the mood. Brady let Blue hold him for a few minutes while he sleepily ate his breakfast, setting a smile on her face that was bright enough to put the sun to shame. Any other morning, this would have been the start to a good, relaxing day. Today, however, there was a current of anxiety running through all of them. This was it. They had been waiting for this for weeks. This trial would determine the fate of Brady, the MVP of their little forged family. Adam and Ronan were very visibly nervous, but having their family there to support them was comforting, as always. They got dressed in their suits and then got Brady into his swim trunks. Matthew had volunteered to take him to the Singer Falls Aquatic Center to swim while they were at the courthouse. Adam and Ronan felt horrible leaving him, but they couldn’t put him in the same room as Mellissa, not when the little boy was still having nightmares about her. It would be like Ronan pulling his night-terrors from his dreams. It would scar their child in more ways than one. 

“Brady, baby, come here,” Adam said as they were getting ready to head out. The toddler wiggled out of Ronan’s arms and waddled over to his dad. Adam crouched down to be at eye-level with Brady as he spoke. “You’re going to be good for uncle Matty, right?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Brady said, trying to put on a brave face for Adam’s sake. He had put up a bit of a fight about being left without one of his parent, but he loved Matthew. It was hard not to. He would be okay for a few hours. “Brady go swim in the big-kid pool!”

“Not without your floaties, okay, sugar?” Adam smiled. Brady nodded agreeably, if not a little insincerely, and fell into Adam’s arms for a hug and a kiss goodbye. “I love you, baby. Have fun.”

“Come here, Michael Phelps,” Ronan said playfully, scooping Brady into his arms and planting several aggressive kisses on the giggling toddler’s cheeks. “Go easy on uncle Matthew, okay, kiddo?”

“Okay, Papa,” Brady giggled, nuzzling his nose against Ronan’s.

Brady and Matthew stood on the porch and watched the group drive away in Declan’s SUV. Adam saw Brady rubbing overwhelmed tears out of his eyes as he watched them go, but as soon as they were there, they were gone again as Matthew chased the toddler around the yard. The sound of Brady’s shrieking laughter faded as they pulled down the drive. Adam leaned against Ronan as his nerves frayed. He really hoped he didn’t fuck this up. The stakes were so, so high. 

For being such a shithole of a town, Henrietta had a beautiful courthouse. It was an ancient building, all dark wood and white pillars. The last time Adam had been in that courthouse was almost twelve years earlier, when he had brought Robert Parrish to family court for the same kind of abuse his son had suffered. In a way, it was worse this time. Back then, Adam was already living in Saint Agnes, independent from his father and beginning to love life a little more every day. It didn’t matter much to Adam that he hadn’t won the case. He was already free from harm. Now, there was so much more to lose.

As they waited for the courtroom doors to open, Adam looked over at Ronan, who was looking tense and far too handsome in his navy suit. Adam’s hand slipped into Ronan’s and the man looked over, flashing Adam an encouraging smile. “You’ve got this, Parrish.”

“I might need some stress relief after this,” Adam whispered, grinning as he felt Ronan’s hand instinctively tighten around his. “Think you could help with that?”

“Mr. Parrish,” Ronan drawled with mock severity. “We are in a court of law.”

Adam simply shrugged. “So sue me,” he said, pulling Ronan close to him to kiss him soundly. When Ronan ran his tongue along his lip, Adam pulled back, grinning. “Is that a yes, then?”

“It’s always a yes for you,” Ronan winked, and before Adam could pull him into a storage closet, the double doors burst open and the masses began to file in. 

They went to the front row and took their seats. Declan sat alone at the a table up front, looking much more collected than he had at their kitchen table an hour earlier. Adam was surprised to see how many people had shown up. Boyd and his wife were in attendance, as well as a few of Adam’s old buddies from his senior-year factory job. Dr. Myers was there, sitting with Rhonda and a few residents he had grown close to. Ronan’s farmer buddies filled an entire row, looking intimidating and gruff even in their Sunday best. Beth Parrish sat a few rows back, looking lonely and unsure but probably wanting to give Adam some space. Her support meant a lot to him, and so he shot his well-meaning friends stern looks when they glared at her. Ronan shocked Adam by giving Beth a small, tight-lipped smile, which she hesitantly returned, looking wary and grateful at the same time. Ronan was always surprising Adam with the depth of his heart. 

Adam looked around their side of the court room at all of the people who had come to support Brady and it struck him how loved this child was. He told himself to stop thinking about it, because he refused to get emotional before the trial even started, but he saved the mental image to warm his heart with later. 

They all rose from their seats as the Judge entered the room. Once everyone was allowed to sit, Declan strolled up to the Judge and had a perhaps overly friendly conversation with him. As the Judge let out a loud, hearty laugh, Adam felt his heart soar a little bit. He was starting to think that this wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe they could make it through this. 

And then the Bailiff brought Mellissa Moore into the courtroom and that notion flew right out the double doors as they shut behind her.

Adam and Ronan were so concerned with Brady’s feelings before the trial, they hadn’t even thought about how they would feel when they saw Mellissa. Ronan had never met her but Adam had, and yet if she hadn’t been announced, Adam wasn’t sure he would have recognized her. She was bone-thin and pale, dark circles lining her bloodshot blue eyes. She looked like she was going through the worst of her withdrawals from whatever she was on this time and for one selfish moment, Adam allowed himself to revel in it. He hoped she was suffering. He thought of his baby’s face, bruised and bleeding under the florescent hospital lights, and he hoped she suffered for a very long time. 

Ronan growled lowly, setting his furious eyes on the woman. If looks could kill. Mellissa would be disintegrating under Ronan’s heated gaze. Adam placed a comforting hand on Ronan’s forearm, but it didn’t have much of an effect as Adam was absolutely vibrating with fury at the impassive look on her face. She looked bored by all this. It set a fire of rage under Adam’s skin. He was about to let go of Ronan and let him rip into her when the judge banged his gavel against its block and called the court to order. 

Declan delivered his opening statements perfectly, addressing the Judge directly and speaking in his most lawyerly voice. If it were any other situation, Ronan would have been scoffing at his brother’s courtroom swagger, calling him all the crude names he could think of under his breath. Now, Ronan’s eyes were rapt on his brother as the man danced around the front of the courtroom, spinning a story of abuse and neglect in the most heartbreaking and theatrical way possible. No wonder Declan was always busy with a case. He was a damn good lawyer. 

Unfortunately, Mellissa had a decent lawyer on her side as well, who painted a picture of a young mother in an abusive relationship, robbed unjustly of her child. The woman batted her eyes innocently at the judge and Adam was vibrating with rage. She was so full of shit the courtroom was beginning to stink. 

Today’s hearing was a fact-gathering hearing. One by one, the judge heard testimonies of the people involved in the incident. Dr. Myers spoke on Brady’s medical condition when they brought him to the hospital. Her story was structured and scientific, but her descriptions packed a punch as she detailed the many abrasions Brady came in with. After Dr. Myers, Mellissa’s lawyer brought up a character witness, one of her old work associates who spoke on how she had never known Mellissa to be anything but kind and giving. Declan cross examined the woman, asking just how long the woman had worked with Mellissa. When the girl quietly said, “three weeks,” Mellissa rolled her eyes. So much for kind. 

Beth Parrish was next. Growing up, Adam had never known his mother to be a very good storyteller. When he was really young, she would sit on the edge of his bed and, in a monotone voice, she would read him “Goodnight Moon,” his only book. Now, however, she was animated and convincing as she recounted that night in gruesome detail. He wondered where her sudden liveliness had come from. She had told him on the phone a few days ago that she had been practicing. He could vaguely picture her, standing in front of the trailer’s grimy bathroom mirror, quietly rehearsing her testimony as Robert slept feet away. The thought was strangely endearing and he found himself gifting her a smile as Declan finished his questioning and she took her seat.

Before long, Adam’s was being called to the witness stand. Ronan squeezed his hand as he got up to get sworn in. Adam’s heart was pounding rapidly in his chest as he took a seat. He tried to un-focus his eyes, to blur the crowd in front of him, but that didn’t work. Besides, it was encouraging to see Ronan, Blue Gansey and Henry in the front row. Declan started his questioning, rattling off some of the questions he had written down at Ninos. Ronan caught his gaze and gave him an almost imperceptible nod, giving Adam the encouragement he needed to go on. 

Adam told the judge of his journey with Brady, starting with that first day in the hospital and continuing to the night before the trial, when Brady had his worst nightmare to date, waking up with a scream lodged in his throat. By the end of Declan’s questioning, the audience was in near tears at the thought of little Brady, innocent and undeserving of the aftershocks that were rattling him still, in pain and terrified to sleep at night. 

“Mr. Parrish,” Declan said, pacing the floor slowly as he prepared to ask the last question. “What would you say the biggest difference in Brady has been since he came back to your home?”

“He’s just so…” Adam said, looking down as he choked out the next word. “He’s afraid. He’s afraid to be left alone again.”

“Like Mellissa Moore left him alone with Marcus Hamby?” Declan asked. 

“Maybe,” Adam said, not wanting to give a definite answer because Brady still hadn’t talked to him about it. “I think he’s afraid if we leave him alone, that man is going to come back and hurt him. He doesn’t think that he’s safe anymore and it will probably be a long time until he fully shakes himself of that.”

“Thank you, Mr. Parrish,” Declan said, turning to the judge with arms spread wide. “No further questions your honor.”

Adam finally let himself breathe as he began to stand from his seat. Then, a voice from the corner of the room piped up. “Your honor,” Mellissa’s lawyer said. “I’d like to ask Mr. Parrish a few questions, if I may.”

“I’ll allow it, Mr. Jones,” the judge said. Adam stiffened as he saw the sly look in the Mr. Jones’s eyes. He sat back down, waiting for the first question to come out of the lawyer’s smirking mouth. Bastard.

“Mr. Parrish,” Mr. Jones said. “What does Brady call you and your partner?”

That was a weird question. Adam had no idea where he was going with the odd line of questioning as he answered, “Brady calls my husband Papa and refers to me as Daddy.”

“That’s a little odd, don’t you think?” Mr. Jones asked. “For a child to call his foster parents ‘Papa’ and ‘Daddy?’”

“I don’t think so,” Adam answered truthfully. “He grew up with us.” 

“Interesting,” Mr. Jones drawled. “Did you ever tell Brady you weren’t his actual parents before he was taken to live with Mellissa Moore?”

The courtroom was silent for a moment as Adam gritted his teeth. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ronan bristling, a stern glare set on the back of the asshole lawyer’s head. 

“Brady was aware he had a mother before he was taken to live with her, but we didn’t talk much about her,” Adam said when he trained his temper. “Brady considers us his parents. We raised him.”

“So, you’re telling me that the child grew up thinking you were going to be his parents forever, even though you were aware he could be taken any moment?” Mr. Jones scoffed. “It sounds to me like my client never had a chance with the child. He had no idea who she was! You were dishonest with him and so when Mellissa finally got Brady back, the child was too afraid to really bond with her. Does that sound like a fair arrangement?”

“I-”

“Furthermore,” Mr. Jones said, not giving Adam a chance to speak. Adam was desperately clinging to the last shreds of his composure. “I think you and your husband did more damage to the boy than Mellissa ever did.”

“Really?” Adam snapped, leaning forward in his seat to bare his teeth at the scummy lawyer. “I don’t remember watching as my son was beaten by my lover. I also don’t remember abandoning him in a hospital while he was frightened and strung out on whatever I shot up last!”

“Mr. Parrish-” Mr. Jones started, by Adam couldn’t be stopped. His rage was palpable and growing by the minute. 

“No, what I remember is holding a trembling baby in my arms and promising to protect him. Up until your client took him from us, he was safe. He was loved. He still is. I followed through on my promised and gave that little boy a good life. I don’t regret the way I raised my son because despite what his birth certificate says, that is exactly what he is. He is my son,” Adam shouted, more livid in that moment than he had ever been. “I have been there for every moment of his life. I didn’t wait until it was convenient to become a parent. I just did it. And if I could go back in time, I would do almost everything the same way. The only thing I would do differently is I wouldn’t have let that woman anywhere near my baby. She doesn’t deserve him.”

The courtroom was pin-drop quiet as Mr. Jones scrambled for something else to ask. Adam sat back in his chair, his hands trembling with rage. Tears blurred his vision as he stared directly ahead, trying to bring his pulse down to a reasonable speed. He had to calm down. 

“No further questions, your honor,” Mr. Jones sighed, tucking his tail between his legs as he walked back to his table. Mellissa Moore sat beside him, silent tears dripping down her sunken-in face. 

Adam returned to his seat, squeezing the hand Ronan offered him as tightly as he could. Ronan looked enraged too, but was more focused on soothing Adam, who looked like he was ready to burst into angry tears. 

“I think that’s all for today,” the judge said, rubbing a tired hand across his face. Adam could relate. “The court will reconvene tomorrow for my decision. You’re dismissed.”

The sound of the gavel pounding against the block was like a cue for chaos. All at once, people surrounded Adam, patting him on the back. He couldn’t handle that at the moment He needed air. He needed to get out of this suit. He needed to see his kid. 

Luckily, Ronan’s brain was on the same wavelength. He took Adam’s hand and pushed through the crowd, making a path as he stormed toward the exit. Adam felt another hand slip into the one Ronan wasn’t holding and he look down to meet the eyes of a furiously proud Blue Sargent. 

“That was badass,” she said. The sentiment was so absurd it made a surprised laugh bubble from Adam’s chest. He could feel his temper subsiding as they stepped out into fresh air. 

Ronan immediately pulled Adam to his chest, wrapping him in a strong embrace. Adam felt the anxious fury melt away as he breathed in Ronan’s scent. It was then that he let the full weight of what he had just done hit him. His temper had probably just injured their case. The judge was probably going to do whatever he had to do to get Brady away from his psychopathic dad. 

Declan bolted from the courthouse as soon as he was released. Adam felt his stomach drop. He was ready for Declan to chew him out for losing it. His temper was always getting him in trouble. Why couldn’t he have kept it under control, just this once?

“Parrish-”

“Declan, I’m so sorry,” Adam groaned, dropping his head into his hands. “I shouldn’t have done that. What did the judge say? Do you think he’s going to take Brady? God, I’m such a-”

“Parrish, what the hell are you talking about?” Declan asked, taking Adam’s tense shoulders in his hands and giving them a shake. A sly grin snuck across Declan’s face. “You probably just won us the whole goddamn case. There wasn’t a dry eye in the whole place.”

Adam was taken aback by this, but that didn’t stop the celebration that erupted around him. The family began to chatter excitedly, praising Adam for his dramatic speech. Adam still wasn’t feeling very celebratory. His mind kept running over the lawyer’s words as they drove home to the barns. The words ‘not really his actual parents” were quickly becoming his mantra as they pulled into the long driveway. He was sick of people saying that. Brady was theirs. How could anyone not see that?

When the car pulled to a stop outside the old farmhouse, a small, curly-headed boy came bolting outside, still wearing his swim trunks and floaties. Brady leapt in Adam’s arms and began to chatter away about his day at the pool with Matthew. As the child talked, Adam thought about the stack of adoption papers in his desk drawer, crinkled from the amount of times Adam had sat flipping through them. It was in that moment, looking in his child’s animated eyes, that he made a silent promise to himself and his son.

If they made it through tomorrow, he was filling out that paperwork. No one was ever going to doubt his family again. Adam Parrish would make sure that when Brady grew up, he wouldn’t be wondering who his real parents were. He’d look at Ronan and Adam and he would know. 

They would get through this and then they’d be together. Forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hoped you liked this chapter, I was feeling super insecure about it honestly.  
> So, I asked you what you guys wanted to from this fic a few chapters ago and I'm pretty sure everyone chose option 3 so that's what we're going to do. I want to know if theres any specific moments or something that you would want to see in the continuation of this fic, since the next installment is going to be a bunch of fluffy Parrish-Lynch family drabbles. Your comments mean the world to me so I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thank you for reading! We're almost done!


	9. A Beautiful Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trial ends and a question is finally asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHH three days late to update. I'm so sorry! Please forgive me and, as always, leave me some comments!

The conversation Brady had been avoiding like the plague was finally had the night before the sentencing. 

Dinner was a silent one as all three members congregated around the were exhausted. Everyone else had headed home for the day, wanting to get some rest before court the next day. Even in their tired state, sleep was unlikely for Adam and Ronan. Anxiety was like bees buzzing beneath their skin. They were both confident in the shape of their case, but the risks were to immense and they couldn’t let themselves breathe easily just then. They knew what it was like to have Brady ripped from them without preamble. If they felt that kind of pain a second time, it would most likely kill them both.

As if reading each other’s minds on that matter, they both looked to Brady. The two-year old was happily playing with his food, moving the cut up bits of hotdog around on his plate to make a smiley face, using his carrots to make a pointy orange nose. The toddler giggled adorably at his artwork, looking up for Adam and Ronan’s approval.

“Looks like we’ve got a future artist on our hands,” Ronan mused.

“Good job, baby,” Adam praised, pressing his thumb into one of Brady’s deep dimples. “Let’s eat our food, though, okay?”

The toddler did what he was told, shoving three pieces of hot dog in his little mouth at once. Then, through full cheeks, he said, “Where Papa and Daddy go today?”

Adam looked at Ronan to find him looking back, his dark Lynch eyebrows furrowed. They silently communicated for a moment before Ronan shrugged and Adam took his cue. “We were in court, baby.”

“Court for bad guys?” Brady exclaimed, slapping his little hands on the table with excitement. 

“Definitely,” Ronan snorted. 

“Yes, honey…your Mommy was there,” Adam said carefully. For a moment, he expected Brady to shut down like he always did, but the little boy just tucked his chin to his chest and timidly asked his next question. 

“Was Mommy the bad guy?”

“Yeah, buddy,” Ronan sighed. “What she did to you was bad. She broke a law and now she’s going to get in trouble.”

“What about sir?” Brady asked. 

“Who?” Adam asked.

“Sir. He lived with Mommy. Hurt Brady here,” Brady says, pointing to his healing face. Adam flinched at the word “sir.” He only had bad connotations with that word. He could remember it tasting like blood as he begged his father to stop hitting him. 

“He’s getting in big, big trouble,” Ronan explained, leaning forward to look at Brady seriously. 

“Brady, come here, sugar,” Adam said, plucking Brady from his highchair. Once the toddler was settled in his lap, gazing up at his father, Adam said, “you know what he did to you was bad, right? That he shouldn’t have ever hurt you in any way?”

Adam was worried the child would share his self-blaming nature, but Brady only nodded. “Daddy says not to hit people and Papa says only hit if they hit first.”

“Ronan.”

“Hey, that’s what my Dad said to me and I turned out okay,” Ronan said defensively. 

“Brady…” Adam started, trying to figure out the best way to phrase his next question. “Did…sir…hit you any other time? Besides the night you came back to Papa and Daddy?”

Brady took a minute to answer before nodding. Adam’s stomach dropped despite the fact that he had suspected this. Adam’s next question was a loaded gun. “How many times, baby?”

Brady shrugged and for a moment, both parents thought they had lost him to his determined silence. Then, so softly they could barely make out the words, Brady said, “At night…all nights. Mommy said Brady was bad, but I was good, Daddy. Daddy and Papa said be good.”

“You are good, love,” Ronan said immediately, coming to crowd his family in an embrace. Adam was fighting the tears that were welling in his eyes as he crushed Brady to his chest in a fierce hold. 

“The best. You’re the best boy, Baby,” Adam choked out. “Your Mommy is bad. Whatever she told you…whatever she said, it was wrong. You are perfect, Brady James.”

“Do I have to go back?” Brady sniffled, fighting off his own tears. This was new for Brady, who had always cried openly with the knowledge he would be comforted. When had he learned to quiet himself like this? 

“Never,” Ronan promised fiercely. Adam almost scolded him for feeding Brady promises they might not be able to keep, but he realized in an instant that it was the whole-hearted truth. No matter the trial’s outcome, they would not let Brady go back to that monstrous woman. They would fight and fight and fight until he was theirs because that’s what they did. That’s what Families did. 

“We shouldn’t have let you go there the first time Brady. It was our fault,” Adam said.

“No, Daddy!” Brady cried, distressed at the thought of his parents in distress. 

“Yes, honey, it was. But you know what? We learned our lesson,” Adam added tearfully, smoothing the curls away from his son’s face. “We will never, ever let you go again. You’re our baby.”

“Promise, Daddy?”

“I promise,” Adam whispered fiercely, kissing Brady on the forehead. 

“Brady-bug…” Ronan said hesitantly. “Do you dream about sir and Mommy at night? Do you dream about them hurting you?” 

This time, Brady doesn’t speak at all. He simply nods, ducking his head into the crook of Adam’s neck. Adam runs a soothing hand up and down his back. He wishes his child never had to endure any of this. He wishes he could just be a kid. He wishes he could take the dreams away. He-

Wait. Maybe something could be done about that last one. 

“What if the dreams went away, Brady?” Adam asks, meeting his child’s bright blue eyes. “What if Papa and Daddy could make all of your dreams good. Would you want to sleep in your crib again?”

Brady looked perplexed for a moment, seemingly thinking about it deeply before he said, “Maybe.”

Adam looked over Brady’s head to meet Ronan’s eyes. “Dream something? It might be worth a shot.”

“Say no more,” Ronan agreed, hopping up and leaving the house to go to the dream barn. If it meant that he got to sleep with his husband again without a sweet, tiny, adorable cock-block between them, he’d do it. 

Adam tried to distract Brady from his father’s exit by taking him up to the bathtub. They had decided to wait until Brady was older to tell him about the dreaming, lest the toddler let it slip on the playground or worse, to social services. 

Adam had finally gotten the hang of the temperature thing apparently because Brady sighed in contentment as soon as he stepped into the warm, bubbly water. Adam watched as Brady splashed around in the water, laughing as his father took handfuls of bubbles and blew on them. Adam’s heart leapt with fond affection. Slowly but surely, Brady was recovering. Not only was his face almost completely healed, but he was starting to smile freely again. He was beginning to let their family hold him, touch him, love him again. Adam felt a surge of pride for his son, who at three-years-old was handling things better than he had at seventeen, and he knew he had to tell him the truth.

“Hey, sunshine,” Adam started as he massaged shampoo in Brady’s curls. “Have I ever told you about my Dad?”

“Uh-uh,” Brady said, scrunching his eyes to ward off soap. 

“Well, he was not a very good person,” said Adam. “He used to hurt me, too.”

“Why?” Brady asked as Adam dumped water onto his hair with a cup, rinsing the soap out of it.

“He said I was always bad. Now, tell me, baby. Is Daddy ever bad?” Adam asked. 

“No!” Brady cries. “Papa says Daddy is the best person. Me too!”

“Well, good, but I disagree. I think you’re the best, Brady-bug,” Adam says, poking Brady’s pale belly lightly. “Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you’re anything less than the best, okay?”

“Okay, Papa.” 

“And,” Adam said, needing to get his whole thought out before he lost Brady’s interest, “If you need to talk to someone about what happened, talk to me. If you don’t want to talk to me, we will find someone you can talk to. Talking helps us get better.”

“Did it help you get better?” Brady asked, turning his innocent eyes up at his father. Adam thought back to all of the late-night, dim-lighted discussions he and Ronan had had about his childhood and smiled. 

“It did,” Adam sighed. 

“Okay, Daddy,” Brady agreed with a smile, holding up his hands for Adam to survey. “My fingers look like raisins.”

The sentence startled a laugh out of Adam, who playfully nipped at Brady’s tiny fingers. “Too much time in the water, my little fish,” Adam said as he plucked Brady from the bath and wrapped him in a fluffy towel. He dried him thoroughly and then kissed him on his cold, damp hair. 

“I love you, Brady-bug,” Adam said, pulling the bundle of boy to his chest.

“Love you, Daddy.”

“And I love both of you,” Ronan said, suddenly appearing in the doorway. “But if you want a thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime performance of ‘Green Eggs and Ham’, bed time has to start pronto. I’m exhausted.” 

As usual, Ronan did not disappoint. Adam and Brady watched from Aurora’s old rocking chair, rapt, as Ronan waltzed around the nursery, animatedly retelling the story he almost knew by heart. Adam wondered distantly if Aurora ever sat in that chair, holding a smaller Ronan in her lap as Niall Lynch told grand bedtime stories. It was very likely. Adam would have killed for a childhood like Ronan’s, like Brady’s. He would have died for a father like Ronan, who would lay down his life and more importantly, his pride, to see his son smile. He had often dreamed of a home that was this warm and overflowing with love. Now, however, he wasn’t envious. He was simply overjoyed that his son could have this. He was so, so happy he could provide this kind of warmth for Brady, even if he had never had it. 

“The end,” Ronan said grandly, dipping in an over-exaggerated bow as he finished the story. 

“That was inspiring,” Adam said as he and Brady clapped for the ridiculous man. Then, he turned to Brady, who was stirring nervously in Adam’s lap. He had probably caught on to the fact that the end of Ronan’s performance meant bedtime. “Ready for bed, sugar?”

Just as Brady was about to protest and beg for a spot in their bed, Ronan swooped in with a gift. “Some angels brought this for you, Brady-bug,” Ronan said, holding a silver chain with a simple cross dangling at the end of it. Adam fought the urge to roll his eyes. “They told me it will take away your nightmares as long as you wear it.”

“Angels?” Brady asked, taking the cross in his chubby little fingers.

“Yeah. Want to test it out?” Ronan asked the wary child. Brady let Ronan clasp the necklace around his neck and pluck him from Adam arms, dropping him gently in his crib. The child was beginning to rub the exhaustion from his eyes. Adam distantly wondered if Ronan’s dream necklace had some sleep-inducing abilities as well. “I got you something, too. If you wake up, squeeze this and it will sing to you.”

Adam felt emotion choke him as Ronan handed Brady one of his dream teddies, remembering when Ronan had showed them to him. Brady gave it a test squeeze, lighting up when the bear sang his favorite song back at him.

“Oliver, Papa! Sings Oliver!” Brady chirped happily. 

“That’s right, bud. Now get some rest. Daddy and I will stay until you fall asleep,” said Ronan. 

The couple stood over the crib and watched as the child drifted into a sound sleep. He looked absolutely angelic, surrounded by a halo of honey curls, the ratty old teddy clutched tightly to his chest. For the first time in weeks, his eyes were still behind his eyelids as he slept a dreamless sleep. It filled both men with relief. 

“Love you, baby,” Adam whispered to the child, trailing a gentle finger down his warm cheek.

“Sleep tight, love,” said Ronan as he and Adam left to go to their room, shutting the door behind them.

“Seems to be working,” Adam mumbled when the crawled into bed a few minutes later, collapsing into each other arms. They had not slept this close in weeks and it had started to take its toll. 

“Of course it’s working,” Ronan huffed. “I’m a master dreamer by this point, Parrish. Don’t doubt my genius.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Adam sighed, grinning into Ronan’s chest as the man wrapped his arms around him. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Oh God, can it wait until morning? I’m about to die from exhaustion,” Ronan groaned dramatically. 

“Margaret gave me Brady’s adoption papers at the hospital,” Adam blurted, wanting to get his thoughts out before his husband dropped into a deep sleep. “I think it’s time we filled them out, don’t you?”

Ronan was silent for a moment, probably figuring out what the right words to save were. Then, he said, “I think it was time about two years ago.”

Adam couldn’t help the smile that broke out across his face. The thought of Brady being theirs, legally and truly theirs, sent a delighted shiver down his spine. He let his eyes flutter closed, speaking once more before he fell into unconsciousness. 

“Let’s make him a Lynch.”

 

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

The courtroom was buzzing with voices but all Adam could hear was the blood rushing in his ears. 

If he had thought the turnout was insane the day before, it was even crazier now. Somehow, Gansey and Blue had gotten every woman residing at 300 Fox Way out of the house and into a car. They lined the back row, all looking smug, as if they knew something everyone else didn’t. The Gansey Family was there, too, sitting in front of the psychics like army generals: straight-backed, cool and unsmiling. The contrast between the two families was like night and day, blended only by Gansey and Blue, who stood between the rows in each other’s arms. 

Something was holding up the judge, according to Declan, who had just come from his chambers. He said not to worry about it, but telling Adam Parrish not to worry about something was like telling a fish not to swim. He sat quietly in the midst of the courtroom chaos, digging crescents into his palms with his finger nails. 

“I got you a coffee,” Ronan said as he plopped down next to Adam. Where Adam was a mess of anxiety, Ronan was as cool as can be. Adam knew this wasn’t the whole truth, that Ronan’s insides were as twisted as his were, but Adam wished that for once he could have his husbands cool, confident air. 

“Thank you,” Adam said as he went to reach for the coffee. Halfway through the air, his hands were snatched by Ronan and brought to eye-level. A worried crease appeared between Ronan’s brows. 

“Baby…” Ronan sighed, pulled Adam off the bench and into his arms. “It will be okay.”

“I know,” Adam lied, pressing his face into Ronan’s chest. 

“Come outside for some air with me,” Ronan said, already pulling him by the hand toward the double doors. “Hey, Cheng! Come get Parrish and Me if we aren’t back in time.”

“You got it!” Henry hollered from where he was sandwiched between two Fox Way women, getting his palms read.

Fresh air hit Adam like a train as soon as he stepped outside with Ronan. It was a beautiful, cool summer morning, a rarity in Henrietta. He hadn’t realized how stuffy the courtroom was until he was gulping down cool air. 

“I would say we could go to the Fresh Eagle and give the shopping carts a spin for some stress relief, but I don’t think we’d have time,” Ronan shrugged, a smirk inching its way across his face.

“Not to mention we might never have custody if we show up covered in blood and grinning like maniacs. They already think I’m psychopathic after yesterday,” Adam mused. “And you’re scary looking enough as it is.”

“Fucking asshole,” Ronan laughed, cuffing Adam on the back of the head. The scuffled for a moment like they were seventeen-year-old boys again, stupid and rough and in love, rather than the men they’d grown to be. 

The double doors opened then and the men turned, expecting to find Henry. Instead, they came face to face with Mellissa Moore.

Adam’s hand automatically moved to grab Ronan’s. It was an instinct, to ground himself and keep Ronan calm in one gesture. Ronan set his unholy glare on Mellissa but didn’t move forward or speak. 

Mellissa was just as caught off guard as they were. She had a cigarette held between her fingers. Her eyes looked swollen and bloodshot, like she had been crying. Adam wondered if she was shedding tears over Brady and the thought both sickened and endeared him in the same moment. He felt a gross sense of pleasure when her eyes widened at the sight of the couple’s matching glares. Strangely, they were a muddy brown color, opposite to Brady’s ice blue eyes in every way. That relieved Adam, who could still look at Brady and think ‘Lynch’ knowing he didn’t share that trait with the sickening woman.

“Smoke break,” Mellissa choked out, holding up her unlit cigarette for proof.

“We were just going back inside,” Adam said, already pulling Ronan toward the double doors. 

“Wait!” Mellissa called, stopping the men in their tracks. They turned to find her staring at them with a timid determination in her eyes. “I remember you…from the hospital. You were the guy who was always watching over Brady.”

“How do you know that?” Adam asked. “You never even came to the NICU.”

“A nurse told me,” Mellissa said, her face twisting in anger. “Did you think you could just take my kid?”

“Yeah, we did. That’s kind of what happens when you choose to abandon your kid at a hospital. Someone has to take care of him,” Ronan growled. “Even without the drugs you fucked that part up.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Mellissa hissed as she lit her cigarette. “He was a lot to handle. He kept crying, ‘Papa’ this and ‘Daddy’ that. You two did one hell of a job pussifying that kid.”

“Talk about my kid one more time,” Ronan growled lowly, fighting against the hold Adam had on his wrist. “See what happens.”

Mellissa tossed her head back in a condescending laugh before taking a long drag of her cigarette and turning her bemused eyes on the couple. “You two really think you’re his parents, huh?”

“We raised him. We did what you didn’t have the guts to do,” Adam spat, feeling his temper spike. 

“Do you really think they’re going to give him to you? This is rural Virginia we’re talking about,” Mellissa scoffed. “No judge is going to grant custody to two homos over a rightful birth mother.”

Ronan nearly tore himself from Adam’s hold at that and Adam nearly let him, but they were interrupted by a familiar voice. “Hey,” Henry called warily, sensing the severity of the situation. “They’re about to start.”

“We’re coming,” Adam called, already dragging a seething Ronan back up the stairs. He stopped at the top, turning back to Mellissa with a cold glare. “You could live a million years and never deserve my boy. As long as I’m alive, he will never, ever be yours.”

“We’ll see,” Mellissa shrugged, thoroughly unconcerned.

“Go to hell, bitch,” Ronan called over his shoulder as Adam pulled him through the double doors. 

They stormed back into the courtroom, hand and hand, like two tornados swirling in the same area. Mellissa came in only moments after and the sound was promptly sucked out of the room. The tension between the couple and the mother of their son was palpable as they took their seats. It made the air thick and unbreathable.

Declan turned around in his chair and frowned at his brother’s livid face. “What happened?”

“Squabble with the wicked bitch of the west,” Ronan growled, glaring daggers at Mellissa from across the room.

Declan was about to speak again, but before he got the chance, the judge entered and the whole room stood in his presence. Adam felt his heartrate pick up as he ordered everyone to take their seats. “Let’s get this horrible business over with,” the judge said, shuffling papers around.

The judge began to list off the charges Mellissa was faced with, one-by-one, a list long enough that Adam zoned out for half of it. This alone should have reassured him, but his heart was still drumming with anticipation. He felt a hand slide into his, undeniably Ronan’s, and he gave it a firm squeeze. 

“Miss Moore, please stand and face the judge,” the bailiff said. Mellissa stood, as did her lawyer, and waited for her sentencing with a smug smile on her face. She really thought she had this in the bag. Maybe she did. Adam wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Miss Moore, before I sentence you, I’d like to show you something,” the judge said. The bailiff stepped out in from of the room and unrolled a large poster, Brady’s little battered face blown up into an enlarged picture. The whole room took in a sharp breath and then, suddenly, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“This is Brady’s face after you let your partner abuse him for months,” the judge said. “He was bleeding and crying and you couldn’t even bring yourself to call for help. You let this child suffer and because of your actions, he will deal with the effects of abuse for the rest of his life. I want you to take a good look at his face, because you won’t get to see it again.”

Adam and Ronan both choked on their breath. Now Adam’s heart was racing, but for a different reason. Ronan looked over at his husband, a grin stretching across his beautiful face. Adam had a feeling he had a matching one on his face. 

“Miss Moore, as a representative of the great state of Virginia, I hereby sentence you to one year in federal prison for your involvement in the domestic child abuse case 281037. Furthermore, I am stripping you of your parental rights to Brady James Moore indefinitely. I hope a year is enough time for you to think about what you’ve done. Court is adjourned.”

And with a smack of the gavel, Brady was free.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

“Daddy! Papa!” Brady cried, rushing from the house once he saw his parents pulling up the drive. Adam leapt from the car as soon as Ronan had pulled it to a stop outside the farmhouse, kneeling to catch his little boy in his arms. He was on cloud nine. 

“Baby, I missed you,” Adam whispered, kissing every inch of Brady’s face. The little boy’s giggled erupted into shrieks of laughter as Ronan lifted him from behind and plopped him on his shoulders.

“Guess what, Brady-bug?” Ronan grinned. “You get to stay with Daddy and Papa.”

Brady’s childish scream of joy split the sky and everything was right, right, right. Ronan pulled Brady off his shoulders and held him between him and Adam so Adam could ask the question he’d been waiting to ask the entire car ride home and so much longer than that, too.

“Hey, sunshine,” Adam smiled, tugging playfully on a stray blonde curl. “Papa and Daddy want to adopt you. You could be Brady James Lynch. What do you say?”

Brady seemed to consider this thoroughly for a few long moments before his signature grin stretched across his face. “Like Jenny adopts Oliver?”

Ronan barked a loud laugh, squeezing the happy child tightly. “That damn movie. I bet you regret that purchase, Adam.”

“No,” Adam sighed, smiling fondly at his little family. He felt so full here, with them, in this place they called home. This was their beautiful beginning. “I don’t regret anything at all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MAN, did I cry happy tears writing this. Thank you all so much for your support. Next chapter is the epilogue! Leave me some comments and coming back for our happy ending! 
> 
> Also, I have a question: what would you guys like to see more of from me? Angst or fluff? I thought about doing something with a little mix of both that takes place in Ronan and Adam's senior year. It may or may not involve them playing Romeo and Juliet for Aglionby's school play. Thoughts?


	10. Epilogue (Good Company)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lynches share the most beautiful day of their lives with everyone they love. A happy ending is reached.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Want to cry with me? Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPSfhQkrzEI

The adoption party was set to be another one of Henry Cheng’s great masterpieces and this time, he had truly outdone himself.

The Barns had already been a place of magic, but in Henry’s hands, it was suddenly so much more. The back fields had been cleaned up days prior by a begrudging Ronan and slightly less begrudging Gansey. Henry had them set up four posts to string white Christmas lights from as well as a giant white sheet for reasons Henry wouldn’t disclose. They had dragged the picnic tables into the center of where the posts stood and decorated them with center pieces that each held a picture of Brady amidst the lovely flowers. Because it was also a kid’s party and Henry still had no clue what a kid’s party entailed, Adam had ordered a bouncy house and had nearly robbed the Fresh Eagle of all of its s’mores supplies to use later on Ronan’s newest toy: a state of the art fire pit. 

Henry had set everything up the night before so that the next day would be as stress-free as possible for Adam and Ronan. It was already going to be a huge day for them, and Henry was wise enough to stay out of their way as much as possible. 

That morning, Adam and Ronan walked into Brady’s bedroom and sat on the edge of his brand new big-boy bed. The toddler was still sleeping soundly despite the shift of the mattress under their weight. 

“Yeah, he’s definitely your child,” Ronan mused over the sound of Brady’s soft snores. 

Adam ran one of his large, delicate hands up and down Brady’s back, trying to gently rouse him from his sleep. The child’s head popped up a few moments later, his big blue eyes blinking the sleep away. His curls were wild on top of his head, going this way and that way. Ronan thought he looked like a little Matthew Lynch in that moment, eyes and all. 

“Good morning, sleepy head,” Ronan said fondly, ruffling his son’s hair. “How’d you sleep?”

“Good, Papa,” Brady said, tugging at the cross that was hanging around his neck on a chain. “No nightmares!”

“That’s what I like to hear, Brady-bug,” Ronan said playfully through clenched teeth as he tickled the toddler without mercy right under his ribs. The sound of the roaring laughter from both the little boy and the ridiculous man was one of Adam’s top three favorite sounds. 

“Baby, do you remember what today is?” Adam asked, lifting the child onto his lap. 

“Adoption day!” Brady cried happily, clapping his little hands together. 

“That’s right,” Ronan grinned, poking Brady’s stomach. “We have to be at the courthouse in an hour, little man, so it’s time to get up and get a move on so we can give you the coolest last name.”

Adam had never seen Brady move faster. The little boy bolted from where he was seated on Adam’s lap and rushed into the hallway. Ronan and Adam grinned at the sound of his little feet tumbling down the stairs. Brady had been chattering away about this day for weeks. He’d been walking around the house, repeating “Brady James Lynch” over and over in order to get the hang of new name. In grocery stores, restaurants, parks and all other public places, he would turn to the nearest stranger and inform them that he was, in fact, getting adopted soon. Even though this had gotten slightly monotonous after the first week, everyone found the toddler’s excitement too adorable to be annoying. 

Ronan had made them breakfast before they had woken Brady up, a huge spread of scrambled eggs and toast and Brady’s personal favorite, bacon. Ronan had opted out of telling Brady that his best friend Oliver the pig’s cousins were probably what the toddler was hastily shoving in his mouth. 

After their breakfast, the family changed into their nicest clothes and hurried into the BMW. Ronan sped a little faster than he normally would have with Brady in the car. If there was ever a day to be on time, it was that day. 

They made it to the courthouse with five minutes to spare and found Jackson, their new case worker, waiting for them on the steps. He gave them a bright smile and a wave as they came up the steps, hauling an ambling toddler behind them. 

“Are you guys ready?” Jackson grinned. 

“Yes!” Brady cheered before either of his parents could answer. Jackson stuck his hand out toward the toddler, who ran to him instantly. Brady adored Jackson. They had really lucked out in the switch from Margaret. Jackson was incredibly good at what he did, putting his life into cases like Brady’s and helping children in similar situations. He was also, coincidentally, ridiculously attractive and by some great miracle, gay. Not only did this help Adam and Ronan, who had someone who wouldn’t let southern prejudice get in the way of Brady’s well-being, but it also helped Henry, who was suddenly very present at the barns whenever Jackson was over. Adam and Ronan couldn’t fault him. Jackson had a great ass. 

They sat in the courthouse for the next hour, waiting to be called before the judge. It felt like yesterday and lifetimes ago that they had sat in the same spot fighting for the little boy who was about to become theirs. In between Adam and Ronan, Brady sat quietly, staring up at the high arched ceiling with childlike wonder. He had been so quiet and well-behaved since they walked through the doors. The little boy turned his eyes toward his father and smiled and for the hundredth time that morning, Adam fell a little more in love with the kid. 

“The Lynches?” The judge called from the front, glancing around the room. The family shot up from their seats, Adam hauling Brady into his arms, and hurried to the front to face the judge. “How are you folks doing today?”

“We’re great!” Brady cheered happily, earning a muffled laugh from the other occupants of the room. The judge smiled warmly at Brady, because that was the general reaction most people had when they met the child. 

“What’s your name?” the judge asked.

“Brady James Lynch,” Brady announced proudly. 

“Not yet,” Adam explained, pulling Brady closer to him. “His last name is Moore, but we’re hoping you can change that.”

“I most certainly can,” the judge said and Adam felt a thrill rush through him. Ronan grabbed the hand that wasn’t tucked under Brady and squeezed gently. “I see you have several glowing recommendations. How long have you had Brady in your home?”

“Almost three years, sir,” Ronan said, sounding more polite than he ever had before. If Adam closed his eyes, he could almost convince himself he was actually holding hands with Declan. 

“Alright, we’ll make this quick and easy,” The judge said. “Do you wish to legally adopt this child as your own?” 

Adam and Ronan caught each other’s eyes, so happy and incredulous that they were here, adopting the child that had come into their lives years ago and had stolen their hearts. If you had told Adam when he was sixteen that he would choose this life, he wouldn’t have believed you; but he did. Adam chose and would always choose these two boys who lit the flame of love in his heart. And so, the couple choked out an emotional, “I do.”

“Brady, do you wish to be adopted by your foster fathers?” the judge asked. Brady looked up at Adam, who now had tears welling in his eyes. 

“Yes, mister judge,” the child grinned. Brady looked over at Ronan, who had tears dripping from his cheeks and frowned at his parents. “Don’t cry, Daddy and Papa.”

The couple barked a wet laugh and Adam pulled Brady impossibly close to him, burying his face in golden curls. Ronan put his arm around Adam, pulling his husband and child close to his chest. They didn’t care that they were in the middle of a Virginia courtroom, holding each other and blubbering like babies. This was the biggest day of their lives. This was the start of their forever. 

“And what name shall this child go by?” the judge asked. Adam and Ronan looked down at their son, smiling at him with fond exasperation. 

“Go ahead, Brady-bug,” Ronan chuckled. Brady took his cue, turning back to the judge and clearing his throat dramatically. He was definitely a Lynch.

“Brady James Lynch,” Brady said, loud and clear. 

“Very well,” the judge smiled, writing this down. “Mr. Port, do you have any objections to this adoptions?”

“I do not, your honor,” Jackson smiled.

“Wonderful,” the judge said, shutting Brady’s folder with finality. “Well then, it is my great pleasure to write this adoption into law. As a representative of Virginia, I hereby declare Adam M. Parrish and Ronan N. Lynch as the legal guardians of Brady James Lynch. Congratulations, folks. Next case, please come forward.”

***************************************************************************************************************************************

The doorbell rang five minutes before the party was supposed to start and this sent Henry into a tizzy. The man kept insisting that the party wasn’t perfect yet, running around the barns with Gansey on his heels trying to get last minute things together. Blue was lounging on the couch, huffing and pouting as the two of them ran around her. 

A week earlier, Blue had shown up at the barns with terrified tears in her eyes and a CVS bag with a pregnancy test inside of it. She had come for Adam, who was at work at the time, but Ronan was there and Brady was napping so he sat on the edge of the bathtub and held her hand as the test revealed that she was, in fact, carrying the next Gansey heir. After talking her down from a panic attack, Ronan plucked a sleeping Brady gently from his bed, put him in Blue’s trembling arms and left her to process. Thirty minutes later, she came down the stairs with a now awake Brady in her arms and joyous tears in her eyes. She had taken Ronan by the hand and happily shouted, “I’m gonna be a mom!” 

Gansey had promptly fainted when he learned the news and, upon waking up, declared that Blue was not allowed to exert herself in any way. Blue, of course, was not loving this treatment. 

“I’ll get the door!” Blue hollered, hopping up from the couch. Gansey dropped the stack of plastic dishes he was carrying on the table and put his hands firmly on his hips, quirking one perfectly arched brow at his partner. 

In his most kingly voice, Gansey said, “Blue Sargent. Sit. Down.”

Blue, of course, was having none of this. “I’m hardly two months along, Gansey, I can get the door. It’s my body.”

“It’s my first born,” Gansey argued. 

“It’s mine too-”

“Hey,” Adam hollered from the stairs as he descended them with a sleepy baby in his arms. Brady had his head tucked into Adam’s neck at the loud noise, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with tiny fists. He had crashed immediately upon getting home from lunch and had taken a three-hour nap. Adam and Ronan would have rejoiced if this hadn’t meant he would be up all night. “Stop bickering. I’m getting the door.”

Adam distantly heard Blue huff, exasperated, as Gansey whispered mushy things to her. He would leave them to that. 

He swung the door open and was met with a face he would have never thought he’d see at the barns, much less want to see. Still, when his mother looked up at him, he smiled. “Hey, Mama.”

“Am I too early?” Beth asked, tugging nervously at her dress. Adam remembered it from his childhood. It had always been her nicest outfit, a violet sundress with flowers on it. Her eyes were fixed on the tired child in his arms who was curiously staring back at her.

“No you’re fine, it’s just a little crazy around here. Come in,” Adam opened the door for her and took her jacket. This felt so strange, having her here in the place he had loved because it was so far from where he came from in every aspect, but he wasn’t against it. They had been talking every day for a few months now. She had left Robert right after the trial and had fled to a woman’s home right outside of Singer Falls on Adam’s dime. He didn’t mind. As he looked at her now, she looked ten years younger than she had at the trial. Her arms weren’t covered in bruises and her eyes were noticeably brighter. He was glad to be able to help her. He was doing for her what she could never do for him, and that made him feel like he was worth something. 

He brought her into the kitchen, where Henry, Gansey and Blue were sitting at the table. Adam had warned them that she was coming and that they weren’t to make her feel uncomfortable, but they still couldn’t help but go silent as soon as she walked in the room. Ronan turned at the sudden silence, pausing his current task of icing a chocolate cake to look at what stopped the noise. His face grew tense for half a second before he schooled it into a small smile. It was about as much as he could muster and Adam loved him for it. 

“Hi, Beth,” Ronan greeted. “I’m glad you could make it.”

“Thank you for having me,” Beth said quietly. Beth was still slightly flabbergasted by Ronan’s kindness to her. She had admitted to Adam over the phone that she had been wrong about him and Adam had tried not to gloat with pride. At seventeen, Ronan would have probably ripped Beth’s throat out for having the gall to step foot on his property after she treated the love of his life with such disregard for years. Now, at almost 30, he cared more about Adam’s feeling than anything else, so he played nice for his husband’s sake. It was all he could do to help. 

“Daddy,” Brady whispered, tugging on Adam’s sleeve. He looked up with curious blue eyes at his father and the silent question was clear in them.

Adam looked at Ronan for permission and received an almost imperceptible nod. He then flicked his eyes to his mother and smiled. “This is your grandma, baby. Do you remember her?” 

Brady nodded into Adam’s neck. He still became slightly closed off when it came to talking or even remembering those few horrible months with Mellissa. He was seeing a child therapist about it every other Thursday and it seemed to be working, but it was sometimes touch-and-go. 

Adam pressed a kiss to Brady’s cheek to let him know that it was alright. The child smiled fondly up at his father and then looked back at Beth. He seemed to want to speak, but didn’t know what to say, so Adam nudged him in the right direction. “Do you want to say hi, sugar?”

Brady thought on this for a moment, his little forehead creasing in concentration. Then, in an act that shocked the whole room, the little boy reached his arms toward Beth and leaned out of Adam’s grip. 

“He wants you to hold him,” Adam said warily. “But don’t feel like you have to if you don’t want to.” 

“No! No, I want to,” Beth said quickly, turning her pleading eyes toward Adam. He felt ashamed to admit that he had to take a deep breath before handing his child to Beth, but as he watched Brady latch his arms around her neck and squeeze her in a signature Brady hug, he felt his heart grow warm. “Hi there, Brady.”

“Hi,” Brady whispered. “Are you Daddy’s Mommy?”

“I am,” Beth answered, enraptured by the child. Adam grinned. Brady really had that effect on everyone. “I brought you something.”

Adam watched as Beth dug through her patchwork purse to retrieve a zip lock bag. Inside of it was a chocolate chip muffin, not unlike the one she had given him on his birthday decades ago. Adam felt a lump forming in the back of his throat that he tried to push down. Ronan, having heard the story before, took Adam’s hand. 

“It’s nothing like that cake over there,” Beth drawled, smiling fondly at Brady, “but it’s all I could manage in my little kitchen.”

“Thank you,” Brady grinned, pressing his little hand against Beth’s cheek. The woman closed her eyes against the tears that were beginning to well there. For all parties involved, this felt like a fresh start. 

The doorbell rang again, slicing the thick, emotional silence in half. Henry leapt from his stool and rubbed his hands together, grinning like an evil maniac.

“It’s party time.”

 

***************************************************************************************************************************************

The adoption day party was better than both birthday parties put together. 

Henry had set everything up beautifully and with the addition of the bouncy house, both the parents and kids invited were having a ball. Ronan and Gansey had fired up the grill, flinging burgers and hotdogs this way and that way with the supervision of Declan. Now, as the sun was setting, everyone was happily stuffed with delicious food. Maura and Calla were doing tarot card readings for Adam’s coworkers and Beth, who blushed when she was told a new man would be coming into her life soon. Henry was sitting next to Jackson, hanging onto his every word as Jackson talked about his work. From the look in Jackson’s eyes, it was going very well for Henry. Adam and Blue sat together, talking about children and life and how they had come so far from the wild children they had once been. 

Their reminiscing was interrupted by Ronan, who called out to him from where he was walking over from the porch with his hands behind his back. Adam quickly beckoned his son over to him, patting his lap. They had planned this surprise for Brady for weeks now and Adam felt himself grinning as the little boy waddled over to where Adam sat, his face smeared with chocolate and blissfully happy as the man pulled him into his lap and covered his eyes.

“We have a surprise for you, baby,” Adam whispered. “Are you ready?”

“Yes!” Brady cheered, bouncing up and down with excitement. 

“Count to three,” Adam commanded, grinning up at Ronan’s sly smirk. 

“One…two…” Brady counted, but as Ronan pulled his hands from behind his back and Blue gasped with delight, Brady got fed up with the counting and peeled Adam’s hands away from his eyes. The light in his eyes as he looked at the tiny orange kitten in Ronan’s hands could have competed with the sun. “Kitty!”

“He’s yours, Brady-bug,” Ronan said, kneeling in front of his son as he cradled the overwhelmed kitten to his chest. “You have to be really calm and gentle around him. He’s just a baby.”

Brady looked like he was about to burst as he wiggled out of Adam’s arms and lightly began to stroke the kitten. He giggled joyfully as the kitten licked his little palm. Adam and Ronan met eyes over the little boy’s head and smiled. They both felt so full with love and warmth they could burst. 

“What are you going to name him, Brady?” Blue asked, looking on with a smile on her face. 

“You already have a pig named Oliver, kiddo,” Ronan snorted. “You might want to choose something else, yeah?”

The kitten looked just like the one in the movie. Ronan had a farmer friend who’s cat had a litter of them and couldn’t resist, knowing the child would immediately notice the resemblance and flip. However, Brady didn’t seem put out by his inability to name him after the animated character. Instead, the boy tilted his head and smiled lovingly at his pet.

“I want to name him Noah,” Brady said with finality. The smiles instantly dropped from four faces at those words. Behind him, Adam heard Blue choke on a breath. Ronan had immediately paled. Adam couldn’t even form a coherent thought. 

Of course, Gansey got his shit together first. “Why Noah, buddy?”

Brady smiled up at his uncle Gansey, all teeth and dimples, and said, “Noah is my nighttime friend. He came when I had nightmares, but he doesn’t come anymore. I miss him. Papa, why are you sad?”

Ronan batted away the tears that had started dripping down his pale cheeks. He dropped the kitten in the grass gently and then scooped his son into his arms, squeezing him tightly against his broad chest. “I’m not sad, love,” Ronan said. “I think Noah is a great name.”

“So do I,” Adam said, jumping from his seat to wrap his family in a hug. “The best.”

“Alright, people!” Henry called cheerily, either not picking up on the suddenly heavy mood of the party or choosing to dissipate it with his flamboyancy. “It’s movie time! Mr. Lynch? Can I get your help here?”

“Coming!” Ronan called, wiping the remainder of his tears as he departed from his family, leaving a kiss on both of their foreheads. Adam watched as Ronan helped Henry fiddle with a miniature box and then, suddenly, a movie was being projected onto the giant white sheet Henry had set up. 

“Oliver and Company!” Brady cheered, wiggling out of Adam’s arms. Gently, he picked up Noah the kitten in his arms and waddled over to sit in front of the makeshift screen. 

“Dream projector?” Adam asked when Ronan dropped down to sit in the grass next to him, handing Adam a plate of perfectly made s’mores. 

“Henry begged me,” was all Ronan said as he slung his arm around Adam, gazing down fondly at the man he had built this beautiful life with. “Are you happy?”

Adam didn’t even need to think about the answer to that. He looked around at his friends and family, all gathered together in the dim light of twilight. He looked at his son, so healthy and happy and loved like he never had been, clutching his new best friend to his chest as he sang along to the movie. He looked at Ronan, who had shown him that this love was his to have if he wanted it, and the answer was so clear to him. “I’ve never been happier.”

Ronan smiled at that, leaning down to kiss him soundly. On the screen, Jenny began to sing to the little kitten as she played piano. “You and me, together we'll be…forever, you'll see. We'll always be good company, You and me.

Adam felt his heart swell with fondness as he leaned into Ronan’s embrace, smiling as Ronan began to hum the tune into his hearing ear. He was overcome with fondness for Ronan and Brady, for this beautiful life he loved so much and for this wild, magical place they all called home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god, I'm emotional. Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read this. It's my first fic and I didn't expect such an overwhelmingly kind reaction. I'll be posting the companion piece to this story very soon! Finally, leave me some comments and let me know your thoughts! LOTS and lots of love for you all! 
> 
> -Mads


End file.
